Visions of Alice
by BethAnn St.John
Summary: So, for my darling sister, I am going back to the beginning to add in the adventures of Jasper; so you'll see some changes in chapter structure - Ch. 2 is Jazz's first appearance in my story...
1. The Dark

**Preface**

She knew her name was Alice. It's the only fact she could hold on to in the inky blackness. There were moments when she imagined that if her name were something else; her life would not be so completely devoid of purpose. She concluded that there must be something terribly and horrifically wrong with her that caused her to be entombed in a lightless, lifeless cell. There was no illumination, there were no sounds save from periodic and terrifying screams in the distance, and no one ever came to see her other than the doctor. She could not tell if it was morning or evening. Alice continued to ask the doctor for information or news of the world outside, only to receive platitudes and redirection.

Alice could not remember very many things. She would repeat things she knew, hoping desperately to remember the words. Inevitably, the doctor would come to take her for a treatment and she would not be able to hold onto some things she knew only a few hours earlier. After her therapy and always in the dark, the doctor would escort her from his laboratory, down the stone corridor to her tiny room. Alice was always shaking and nauseated from the pain of the medicine the doctor told her she had been given when she was placed gently down on her narrow mattress. The doctor would spend the next several hours just talking to her in a soft tone, the words melting into each other until it sounded as if he were purring over her. She would sigh, relax into the scratchy material of her pillowcase, and float into unconsciousness on the waves of his voice.

When she woke, everything in her head was gone again. Only Alice remained.

**The Dark**

There was only ever darkness. Alice had begun to believe the sun had died. The doctor came to her after time passed, bringing food and talk. She always saw him before he arrived; in fact, he was the only person she recognized in her visions. Her mind would become fuzzy and she would watch him hurry down the corridor to the place she sat in perpetual shadow, his face suffused with the light of wistful sadness with his eyes ever veiled from her. Then her head would clear and moments later, she could hear the heels of his shoes clicking hollowly against the stone surface as he moved.

Alice did not recall how she came to be in this room. She concluded that her visions were directly responsible because most of the time, she was unable to abstain from voicing them aloud. The doctor never answered the question of why when asked directly. He would tell her that she was brought to him to be his angel, a beacon of light in his dreary existence. Sometimes this response would anger her, but more and more, she would become despondent and cease to speak for increasing lengths of time. Her silences would cause the doctor to become agitated and his pleas for her to speak would grow more frantic.

When she was being honest with herself, Alice knew that she used her silence to punish him. She would beg him for details of her life before the darkness, and the steadfast determination he had for keeping them from her made her feel cruel and vengeful. Then, as she withheld her conversation, she felt a surge of power - intangible, but still bolstering her resolve to maintain her silence.

She was mostly left to herself. The result of such extensive isolation and little stimulation for her mind or body was that she was often lethargic and slept often if for no other reason than to allow time to pass until she next saw the doctor or woke with a vision. To fill her waking hours, Alice would look inward to see what the future held for her; hoping to see anything that would indicate life outside of the doctor's care. She considered her gift, as the doctor called her delusions, to be a curse placed upon her because she was inherently evil. Yet, as her isolation endured, the world of her visions gave her comfort in knowing that she did have a future, if only in this darkness. It never occurred to her to attempt to end her life. She sensed that beyond this place, something was waiting for her and she became increasingly engrossed in efforts to see that future.

Alice returned to the present with a start. She had been watching the doctor speaking to her, words she was unable to hear. She assumed that he had asked her to look into his future. She could infer that whatever she foresaw would be visually terrifying because her hands grasped the arms of the chair she was sitting in so forcefully that her knuckles blanched white against the gloom of what must have been the doctor's laboratory. There was a single lantern burning on the table beside her and she cowered as close as possible to it, as though it could shield her from her visions. She did not recognize the room, but her memory was so full of holes that it was as tattered as the blanket covering her tiny cot.

As Alice recounted the details of her vision, the doctor's expression turned from one of intellectual curiosity to that of a trapped animal, terrified and dangerously reckless. He appeared to be firing questions rapidly at her, and Alice watched in concern as her future self withdrew into herself as the questions battered at her ears. She put her hands up to cover them in a futile attempt to protect herself from both the doctor and the horror of what she had seen. As the scene faded, Alice saw the doctor reaching for her as in comfort and apology.

Her mouth formed a little moue as she bit down on her inner lip, struggling to remember another time she had seen that room filled with books and jars. Her mind phased again and she was again in the laboratory, only this time, the doctor was staring into her eyes very intently. Her expression was one of determined disapproval. As he held her gaze, Alice watched her eyes turn vacant and her body relax from the rigid posture she had been holding. The doctor gave a brief nod and spoke softly to her. Then, as he stood and extended his hands, she watched herself languidly accept his assistance in standing and allow herself to be led from the laboratory.

She wondered how the doctor passed the time when he wasn't talking to or with her. She felt that she had asked this many times in the past, and Alice looked inwards for the doctor's future and saw a vision that terrified her. She broke from the vision gasping for air, the taste of bile in her mouth. Dr. Coombs had gathered a small woman into his arms and appeared to be embracing her lovingly. The woman's head had fallen to the side and Dr. Coombs leaned forward to her neck. But rather than placing a kiss on her exposed skin, he opened his mouth and sank his teeth into her flesh.

She blinked rapidly as it occurred to her that the reason she could not remember many things was that the doctor, in addition to being a vampire, had the ability to remove her memories. Following closely on that thought, she wondered how many times this same realization had come to her only to be wiped out like rain on a window. Anger flared in her chest, making her warm despite the constant chill of the place she was kept.

Only the previous day, when she could bear the quiet no longer, she had implored the doctor to take her outside, to let her see the sky, smell the fresh breeze, anything to let her know that she was still alive even though she was apparently insane.

"Please, Dr. Coombs…" Her hands grabbed at the empty space she thought he was occupying a second before. She blinked rapidly because he was now several feet away from her in the darkness. He always seemed to move so fast. She tried again. "Just for a moment... I saw that you will take me out to see the sky, it will be raining. Please."

He shook his head sadly at her.

"Darling girl, there is no scent of rain this evening," he murmured. "You have never before attempted to gain your way through subterfuge, why start now?"

She hung her head, momentarily defeated. She had known that he would catch her lie. In truth she had seen something far more disturbing. Alice's mind blurred and she saw Dr. Coombs running so fast across a brick courtyard that he seemed to be flying. His long coat was streaming behind him like the wings of a crow. Her heartbeat began to thrum painfully until she could hear the blood pulse through her body. The vision faded and her breathing slowed infinitesimally. She scooted herself into the corner furthest from the door and waited. Something was very wrong and change was coming.

Tonight.


	2. The Cantina

**The Cantina**

The night air blasted through the cantina when the front door swung open like heat from a furnace. The other patrons who had managed to remain upright after imbibing the local swill grumbled in protest. The sound reminded Jasper of rank and file soldiers told their liberty was cancelled. It irritated him more than the stench of their unwashed bodies.

He sat in the farthest and darkest corner in the hovel-turned-bar, the wide brim of his weathered hat shielding his eyes from curious onlookers. He had come here looking for a distraction from the ever present despondency that crouched over him like a reaper. Humans tended to enjoy regaling each other with tales of personal woes, Jasper thought it would be amusing to hear what the standard bag of blood was bemoaning that evening.

Most of them were giving him a wide berth. His prolonged career as a soldier gave him a commanding and dangerous air. Even if they could not see his face, his body language emitted a strong "you really do not want to start anything with me" aura. The hunting boots, close fitting pants and loose white linen shirt were well-made, but travel stained. His long leather duster was slung negligently over the chair next to him.

_What am I doing here?_ The thought had been resurfacing on and off for days. He had made it as far as San Antonio before finding his footsteps were doubling back, towards Mexico rather than away from it. The realization that Mexico had become more of a home to him than his beloved Texas had enshrouded him with sadness. Charlotte had noticed it and Jasper could tell that she was itching to talk about it. He was avoiding her now. Sadly, that meant he was also forced to avoid Peter, and those conversations made the long, endless hours of the past several weeks seem less weighty.

A blousy barmaid traipsed past his table, allowing the ruffled flounce of her wide collar to slip over a golden shoulder. She paused, and then retraced her steps back to him. She glanced in askance at his full glass of whiskey then allowed her eyes to flit to the balcony of the upper level for a fraction of a second. That floor boasted a series of heavy wooden doors behind which all manner of entertainment was carried out.

"_Buenas noches_, handsome," she purred at him. "I am Luisa."

She squeezed her upper arms against her ribcage to emphasize the heavy breasts threatening to burst from the thin cotton blouse. Jasper did not meet her gaze. If he had, she would have run screaming. Not because his irises were glowing crimson, because right then they were not. Rather, she would have seen the feral deadliness they contributed to the entire package. When his eyes were blackened from thirst, Jasper lost all semblance of an approachable human male. Peter had once told him that when his eyes went obsidian, he looked like the very devil himself. Jasper had shrugged. Wasn't he, after all?

Luisa did not appear to be very perceptive. Jasper could feel her confidence growing when he lifted a deceptively elegant hand to the rim of his hat and moved it infinitesimally in a mockery of a greeting. He felt the tiny burst of satisfaction as the wench misinterpreted his innate social programming as an indication to continue bothering him. His breath puffed out of his nostrils softly as he tried in vain to clear her musk and sweat. No luck there, either.

"You do not enjoy your whiskey?" The line sounded rehearsed. "Maybe you wish for something else to satisfy you?"

Jasper eyed this come-hither display with apathy boarding on disgust. In his mind's eye, he saw himself luring the girl out to the shadowed side of the building and draining her in forty-five seconds flat. Yet, the commander in him was assessing her 'qualities' to determine whether she would make an ideal recruit.

_Hold up there, man,_ he told himself, the inner voice harsh and disgusted. _You are no longer building, training, or maintaining an army of newborns. Get your head out of that game._

He shook his head at his thoughts, but the wench assumed he was dismissing her offer of companionship. She swore at him in Spanish and moved away angrily. As he watched, she composed herself and gave the same smirk and jiggle to a pair of men at a nearby table. Jasper snorted softly with contempt.

He had drifted into this remote and forgotten settlement two nights ago. He needed to feed and unmapped settlements were ideal for finding human prey without upsetting the local law enforcement. Mexican officials tended to be a bit less ambitious about tracking down murderers when the victims were considered less than livestock. The irony, in Jasper's opinion, was that he also considered the humans in the same capacity, only for the literal truth rather than the metaphorical one.

A movement to his left put him on alert. It was too smooth and too fast to be a human. Jasper sighed as the male glided towards him. He slouched down in his chair even further, knowing that movement indicated to Peter that he had been spotted and was unwelcome. In his typical fashion, Peter disregarded his unwanted presence with equanimity. He rotated the empty chair next to Jasper and straddled the seat. Resting his arms on the high back of the seat, he settled his chin on his knuckles and affected a cheerfully innocent expression in Jasper's general direction. Jasper did not meet his gaze.

"Jazz," Peter's voice was low. "You are very hard to track when you want to be."

"Peter, I did not want to be tracked," Jasper replied, his lips hardly moving. "I will have to improve my technique posthaste."

A fight broke out nearby as Jasper's irritation crested and landed on two drunken men, enhancing their current argument into a physical confrontation. Peter was accustomed to Jasper's ability and had developed his own knack for recovering quickly from moods enhanced or suppressed by his leonine friend. He forced his shoulders down and his eyebrows up, relaxing his body in a conscious effort to shrug off the aggression emanating from Jasper's body.

"Come on, brother," Peter's voice was still whisper-soft even as the majority of the cantina had joined in the brawl, either in attempts to break up the fight or land a few punches of their own. "Charlotte did not mean it when she said you had lost –"

Jasper cut him off with a slash of his hand.

"She did," he retorted angrily. "And she wasn't wrong."

"Just come back to Texas with me," Peter pleaded. "We have found a ranch on miles of open land. No humans for miles. We can be outside any time we want. Charlotte thinks you could be happier there."

Jasper could feel the optimism Peter was holding onto like a tiny fledgling sparrow. He knew that he would go with Peter, just as he knew that in a very short time, Charlotte and Peter's joy in each other would chase him away again. Their utter delight in love and life haunted Jasper's every waking minute. And as he could not sleep, that was a hell of a lot that he could not escape from. He watched as Peter reached across the rough surface of the worn table and took up the glass of whiskey. He swirled the dirt colored liquid around in the glass. The fetid aroma of the poorly produced spirits bloomed up from the rim. Both men wrinkled their noses as their sharp senses caught the unpleasant smell.

"Trying to blend?" Peter asked, smiling slightly. Jasper nodded.

"The idiots don't bother me as often if I have a drink in front of me," Jasper growled. "At least the men don't."

Peter laughed; Jasper noticed that his former recruit was doing that a great deal more lately. He knew that Charlotte was directly responsible. When Maria had turned the diminutive female, he had a sense that she was different. As a rule, Jasper abstained from demonstrating any favoritism amongst the troops of Maria's vampire army. With Peter, Jasper was relieved that his elevation through the ranks made it possible to develop their friendship as equals. But Charlotte was chosen because she was delicate and soft-spoken. Maria wanted her turned so that she could be used as a diversion in surprise attacks against rival vampire factions.

Jasper had watched as Peter's tactical observation of Charlotte's decoy act turned to teeth-grindingly tense surveillance. Each time Charlotte had been sent into a town or encampment to act out her 'damsel vampire in distress' routine, Peter had crouched down as close as he could safely manage without alerting the other vampires to his presence and watched over her. During those hours, Peter went from affable and controlled to grim and hyper-alert. Jasper had always wanted to tease his friend when the warrior protector emerged, but the frank agony etched across the vampire's features kept Jasper from acting on his desire to tease.

"Jazz, what are you doing so close to Maria's domain?"

There was real concern in Peter's tone now. He knew that when it came to their sire, Jasper was exceptionally vulnerable. They both felt the pull of loyalty to the creature that changed their lives forever. The difference was that Peter severed any ties to the female when she ordered the termination of his beloved. Peter honestly believed that if the opportunity to disassociate her head from her shoulders arose, he would leap at the chance. The bitch was out of her mind and only the constant threat of Volturi intervention kept her ambitions in check.

Jasper grunted. "Brother, if I knew why I keep coming back to this sweatbox, I would surely tell you."

His attention was still being distracted by the fighting crowd of humans. The fuel feeding this clash had dried out as Jasper regained control of his emotions. It was imperative that he maintain a rigid hold on his feelings as was demonstrated here tonight. Being able to augment or diminish the moods of those around him had made him an extremely valuable asset to his sire, but only when he was in command of his own.

"Would I be incorrect in thinking it is the unequalled beauty of the local flora?"

Peter's mouth quirked up at the corners. His wry smile closer resembled a grimace. Jasper knew that Peter had not taken a deep breath since opening the worn orange painted door by the bar. They did not need to breathe, but it was more habit than necessity. There were so many lovely smells that one could almost forget that there were just as many foul odors to counteract them.

Jasper did not respond; he was watching two men muscle a tall, plain looking girl out of the orange entry door into the night. She was protesting loudly, but the cacophony from the fight drowned out her meager cries for help.

"Damn," Jasper muttered. This was partly his fault. His emotional leak caused the ruckus and now that little girl was going to be at the tender mercy of two thugs. He kicked back from the table and sped around the grappling bodies and out of the door, Peter close on his heels.

They flashed around the corner of the mud and thatch building following the sounds of the struggling girl and swearing men. Jasper could feel all of their emotions. The girl's terror, her attackers' lust, and Peter's rage. Nothing set his comrade off faster than a woman in danger. The vampires took up standard attack formation as they approached the trio of humans. Using the signals that he had developed while building and maintaining Maria's newborn army, Jasper told Peter to take the short man who was pulling at the girl's skirts. He indicated he would take down the human holding the girl in a stranglehold. Keeping in the shadows, the vampires crept silently towards the humans. The girl had not stopped fighting; Jasper was encouraged by her determination to fight until the bitter end. He hoped there would not be one for her.

For his part, he sent tendrils of relaxation at the fat son of a bitch who was chewing on the girl's pale brown hair as he whispered obscenities and threats in her ear. As he neared her, Jasper was shocked to see the girl's eyes were not glassy with terror; they were flat with rage and narrowed with determination. Jasper could feel her gathering her will to make a final attempt to elude her assailants. _Damn it,_ he thought. _Do not do a damn thing!_ He sent the relaxation signal to her as well. This tactic never failed in the past to slow a target down to the point of lethargy.

Peter launched himself out of the night and tackled his mark. The human was outraged and was struggling against Peter's iron grip.

"Don't much care for turned tables, do you, you bastard?" Peter snarled. Jasper heard the warm, wet sound of Peter's canines puncturing the stinking man's carotid artery. Jasper kept his attention on his objective. The girl's struggles had lessened as Jasper's ability took effect. Her captor's grip loosened as he too succumbed to the waves of lassitude engulfing them. He looked around in confusion as his companion's disappearance finally registered with him.

"Hector?" The man's voice was slow, guttural, and ugly.

"Wrong."

Jasper launched himself at the attacker, knocking the little girl out of his arms and harm's way. The man landed with a bone-crunching thud. Jasper heard several ribs crack and he applied additional pressure to the upper arm and collarbone, breaking them as well. The scream was not music in his ears, but the sound of his frail human heart giving out as he drained him dry certainly was.

The girl had been flung to the side, hitting the dry ground with a dull thud. She lay where she had fallen, simply staring at the sky. Peter had finished with his kill and stood up from the corpse, delicately wiping blood from his lips with a thin linen handkerchief. He approached the young woman slowly, unsure as to her state of mind if she was at all conscious.

"Are you badly hurt?" Peter asked softly, gently.

The girl blinked once. Peter helped her sit up, but did not raise her up from the fine powder of the drought-deadened earth. Her homespun dress and apron were torn and bloody. Her lip oozed blood that was already clotting and swelling where one of them men had backhanded her.

"Little girl, what is your name?" Peter tried again. "Will you not talk to me?"

She turned her head towards his soft and gentle voice. Jasper resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _Good God_, he thought irritably. _Ever the knight errant, our Peter is. _He left Peter to bring the girl back to reality and deal with explaining away anything she may have seen. Turning, he picked up his kill as easily as if it was a bag of flour, moved to Peter's conquest and picked that one up as well. He raced over the flat plains, his footfalls kicking up clouds of dust in his wake.

When he was four miles from the cantina, he dropped the bodies in a cluster of rocks that was covered in vulture droppings. The carrion eaters would make short work of these meaty offerings, he knew. And he did not want to chance the deaths and their circumstances to get back to Maria. Alerting her to his presence was a pleasure he would just have to forego for the time being.

Jasper jogged back to Peter at a fairly leisurely pace, filling his lungs with the dry scents of the desert air. Peter was still crouched at the side of the groggy girl, talking at her in his best imitation of a friendly human male. This time, Jasper did roll his eyes.

"Peter, have you tried Spanish?" he asked in a bored tone. Peter _tsk_ed and repeated his reassurances and questions in Spanish. The girl immediately responded, stuttering in her excitement to relay what she had seen. She clasped Peter's hand and kissed the bluish-white knuckles. Jasper's mouth twitched to the side in a sneer of a smile. He knew Peter hated the aftershocks of any type of heroic deed. He did not believe himself worthy of any thanks or praise from anyone after the life he had lead for the past forty years. Jasper completely empathized with his friend.

"Christ, Jazz," Peter groaned. "We have to get the hell out of here."

Jasper tensed. Was this girl going to turn them in for killing those two cretins? When was he going to learn? It never boded well when he tried to interfere in human affairs. Damn this creature! If she was going to endanger Peter; and by association, Charlotte, in any way, he would end her life here and now.

"Why?" he snarled, already coiling to spring at the human. She saw him tensing and began to yammer frantically.

"Jazz, no!" Peter called out softly, trying not to alert anyone inside the building to what was transpiring outside. "She is only the barkeeper's daughter! Stand down!"

A command from a subordinate never failed to anger Jasper, but with Peter, they were more like brothers than fellow soldiers. His order drew Jasper up short, but only barely. He relaxed his stance and folded his arms over his chest. Peter knew it was safe to continue talking.

"She saw enough to think that we are angels who protect ugly girls from fates worse than death," Peter interpreted. He was grinning, so Jasper knew that he was paraphrasing with more of his words than hers. "She wants to know if we can do anything about the women in town who tease her for being so ugly – she is particularly keen on the possibility that we may maim or disfigure some of them for her."

Jasper's jaw worked as he floundered between the urge to chuckle and the one to ask for their names. Knowing Peter's wry sense of humor was surpassed only by his own; he surmised that the request was merely a jest to distract him from any subsequent action that would place the girl on the night's list of casualties.

"Brother, you are a dumb son of a bitch," he said finally. Peter's smirk only widened. "Tell her that her life will be in danger if she utters one word of what happened tonight. To anyone, even her priest."

He turned and stalked away from the pair of them, back inside to retrieve his coat. Luisa had gathered it up and was looking around the tiny cantina for him. He accepted the coat from her and as he moved past her, sent a wave of calm in her direction because he sensed she was about to launch a second campaign for his company and coins. He did not want to bother with the niceties of telling her to piss off.

Jasper's roan gelding, Orion, was tethered out front; his eyes rolled a bit wildly as he caught the stink of the attacker's blood now pulsing through his master. Jasper shushed him gently, stroking the broad nose of the faithful animal. He ducked behind the horse's neck as the barkeeper's daughter darted past them back into the cantina, her head down. Peter sauntered over and took up the reins of the sand colored quarter horse next to Orion.

"Right then," he quipped urbanely. "Back to San Antonio?" He offered Jasper a beatific smile and raised his brows in askance.

Jasper thought he gave in gracefully, but after a few moments of riding in silence, he leaned over and punched Peter affectionately in the arm. On a human, that would have crushed the bones in the shoulder, arm and several ribs, but Peter merely grunted and returned the blow with interest. They were both smiling as the night began to fade.


	3. Hunted

**Hunted**

She wanted to weep from the incessant pain in her head. The more she tried to focus, the less clear her visions became. She was standing in the corner of the cell, her back pressed against the freezing stone wall. Alice had been slowly banging her head against the bricks in an attempt to counteract the pulsing ache at the base of her skull. The visions were shifting so fast now that she was becoming dizzy, as though she was spinning endlessly. The doctor was changing his mind so frequently that Alice's visions were blurring into each other in a kaleidoscope of colors.

Her stomach gurgled. It seemed like an eternity since the doctor had brought her anything to eat. She hoped that he would bring some strawberries with him the next time he visited her. Alice loved fruit of any kind and Dr. Coombs would bring tiny treasures such as ripe peaches or a handful of plump raspberries. For reasons she could not always fathom, or perhaps for more than she could count, she felt that these tidbits were attempts to appease her. As the juices from the plums or oranges dribbled down her chin, her small tongue would dart from her lips to retrieve as much as possible. In the darkness of her cell, the fruits were tiny rays of brilliant light and color that were all too brief. Alice treasured each and every morsel. Perhaps they were bribes for predictions he would ask her to conjure, or maybe apologies for memories of visions erased. But when the doctor produced that square of linen, Alice would have cheerfully prognosticated his future ten times over to gain possession of the delectable treasures.

The pain from her visions was always worse when she was famished. Emotions such as fear or amusement were amplified depending on her state of hunger. The hungrier Alice was the less control she found that she held over her visions in direction or duration. The meal the doctor had offered her earlier consisted of bland, formless items that she assumed were eggs and toasted bread. But wrapped in one of those smooth linen napkins were two perfect pears. Alice tried to remember their sandy sweetness to distract her mind from the steadily drumming ache of her brain. She recalled that she had moaned softly lost in the scent and brightness of the fruits. She had not even minded Dr. Coomb's low chuckle at her obvious bliss.

Time was intangible in this place. She had nothing but time to think, about anything and everything. When direct inquiry failed to glean what date or time it was, Alice struggled to identify the components of the meals on the trays were in order to discern whether she was eating breakfast, lunch or supper. Unfortunately, as in the case of the earlier repast, the food was singularly unidentifiable by taste or texture, thus the indistinct composition of the food seasoned the fare with frustration and confusion. What disturbed Alice was that some things she had no difficulty in remembering, yet the huge blank spots in her memory pulled at her fiercely. The idea that Dr. Coombs was stealing her memories more than frightened her. Why would he take only certain memories and leave others? How was he able to sort through her mind and pluck out those thoughts that were of detriment or benefit to him alone, or were there other factors that influenced his choices?

Keys rattled in the lock and the door burst open. Alice waited silently for Dr. Coombs to speak. Her arms were pressed tightly down the length of her waist, and her fingers traced the patterns in the brick nervously. His eyes found her form immediately, even in the oppressive blackness of the tiny cell. She could not see his features, only the outline of his body in the doorway.

He stood motionless for a few seconds, simply staring at her. Alice shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Not only was the floor uncomfortably cold on her bare feet, but his gaze made her edgy. Like hers, his arms hung by his side, and she watched his fingers stretch and curl inwards. They reminded her suddenly of eagle talons preparing to snare an unsuspecting rabbit or squirrel. She shifted back to her original foot as the silence stretched out. Dr. Coombs took a small step forward, but then almost immediately, stepped back again. She heard his intake of breath as if he was about to speak, yet no words came.

Her brow furrowed. Alice wondered what could cause such a normally prepossessed man to waiver in indecision. Usually, he moved with such purpose and grace and hers were the steps that faltered with uncertainty. A particularly sharp needle of pain lanced through her mind and she flinched as everything flashed white in her eyes and she was momentarily blinded. Alice cried out softly in pain and ground the heel of her palm into her eye socket.

"Alice…" Dr. Coombs was at her side in an instant.

Was he just showing off with that vampire speed thing, or what? Alice groused. For the love of Pete, couldn't he just move like a human?

The doctor froze and Alice realized that she had voiced her complaint aloud. Oh drat, she thought. Well, perhaps they had already had this conversation in the past. Her head was just hurting too much for her to really care about whether his tender sensibilities were injured.

"Dr. Coombs," Alice whispered. "Do you have any headache powder handy? I think if the pain gets any worse I may be sick over what I'm certain are your very nice shoes."

"Dearest one, we have to go," the doctor growled. "There's no time to give you the medicine and wait for the pain to pass."

"Since it is your fault that my head feels like it's being cleaved in two, you can damn well give me something to make it hurt less and find the time to let me get my feet under me again," she snarled in reply. The pain was reaching into her stomach and making her nauseous as well as dizzy.

Alice was not normally a surly girl. Even in this place when all hope seemed to have jumped ship, she would have preferred to look for the rays of sun in the clouds rather than focus on the oncoming storm. So her show of temper must have surprised the doctor as evidenced by his sharp intake of breath. She continued on doggedly.

"I have been asking to leave probably longer than I can remember," Alice said, curling her hands into fists. "You have not decided on a course to follow. It would be better for us both if you made up your mind and gave me a minute to regain my balance. If you do not, I think I will throw up on you if you try to move me. "

Empty words, she knew, but they were all she had. She suspected that a bit of vomit would not faze someone who worked in a hospital for any length of time, and with his speed, he would be able to dodge any mess that she produced.

"I accept you for who you are, not what you are," she said quietly. "You expect something from me because of what I can do, but I do not know what it is."

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Alice continued as if he had not moved to interrupt.

"When I am certain I won't be ill all over the place, I will go with you - provided you have a single plan that I can see." She smiled in the blackness. "Otherwise, you will have to drain every last drop of blood from me to keep me from fighting you any way I am able. Either way, you will no longer have my 'gift' at your disposal."

"You would be ineffective against me if I chose to move you," he nearly purred.

"I do realize that," she readily agreed. "But you would know that I do not go of my own free will and that will tarnish your victory over me. Oh – and I will do my level best to ensure that I get sick on you."

He sighed as he always did before conceding her point. He disappeared for a moment, blurring out of the room and back in with a tiny packet of folded paper and a glass of water. Most of the liquid had sloshed out of the glass onto his pristine laboratory coat and starched cuff. Dr. Coombs unfolded the packet of aspirin powder over the water and swirled it into a cloudy solution.

"The powder will be absorbed faster than the tablets," he said as he passed the glass to her.

Alice gulped the liquid gratefully and was equally glad when the doctor helped her to her cot and pressed her into sitting down on its edge. Each pulse through her mind was like a shower of multi-colored sparks that blocked out true sight, so she was essentially blind at the moment. The minutes dragged by as Alice focused on breathing slowly and allowed the medicine to work its magic on her tired mind. Finally, when it felt like she was wearing a too-small stocking cap, she raised her head and looked in the direction of the doctor's form. He seemed to be vibrating with barely suppressed agitation. He took the glass from her unfeeling hand and set it on the floor by his feet. Then he took both of her hands in his. It was a familiar gesture.

The vision came unbidden; she was racing by closed doors with tiny windows in them that were too high for her to see the rooms and occupants within, her bare feet slapping noisily on the stone floor as she ran as fast as she could behind the doctor. She swallowed convulsively.

"Why do we have to leave? And... why now?"

"He is coming for you." A hint of panic flavored his words and set Alice's pulse to racing again. His fear was infectious.

"He - who?" Her voice chased up an octave. "I have not seen anyone coming for me - and I watch for that all the time!"

This was the literal truth. She would wrack her brain for a memory of family, even attempt to fabricate a mother and father as if by doing so, her brain would miraculously produce a vision of a reunion that would end with her release from the darkness. Nothing ever came from those efforts. However the doctor scrubbed out the nooks and crannies of her memory pool, there was nothing left for her mind to generate even the ghost of a memory or vision.

"You were not looking for events resulting in your death, were you?"

Alice froze, her eyes growing round as she absorbed the implications of the doctor's question. A separate voice in her subconscious wondered who normally looks for portents of their own demise. It never even occurred to her that she would or should ever consider looking into her own end. She always looked for the future, with the assumption that she would be alive to see it.

"Death?" she squeaked. "You cannot be serious!" Her head began swiveling from the doctor's outlined form to the door and the hallway beyond. She began stammering.

"Who would want me to die – that makes absolutely no… You would let me be killed – no wait, you said 'we' have to leave..." she trailed off as dread infused every pore in her body. She took a step towards the door, paused and looked to the doctor again.

"I have made a terrible enemy recently," Dr. Coombs said softly, apologetically. "To get at me, he will come for you."

"What am I to you?" she snapped. "A captive soothsayer that you can rub out memories like an eraser over pencil drawings?"

"Alice-"

"No!" she cried. "Am I such an abomination that nothing works out in my favor… ever? I have visions, so I am imprisoned. I am locked away from normal people because I am just so horrific that I cannot be trusted to be permitted in society?"

Her headache was nearly gone, thanks in part to the aspirin, but she suspected that her ability could also sense her future with more clarity and was not having to struggle with multiple paths to predict.

"Dear one," the doctor tried again. When she did not interrupt, he continued. "You cannot know how important you are to me, not just because of your gift."

Alice snorted indelicately.

"I promise to explain everything to you, but we have no time to lose." His hands squeezed hers lightly, but prolonged contact with their iciness had numbed her fingers beyond any sensation than the additional pressure applied to them.

"This… creature…" the doctor cleared his throat. "Is more dangerous than any I have ever encountered. I cannot stress the urgency of our situation in simple terms."

Alice's eyes narrowed as the vision overtook her mind. She seemed to be in flight, but she quickly realized that she was clasped in the arms of another man who was running so fast that the wind howled in her ears. Light colored hair hung down the back of the deathly pale but extraordinarily beautiful man. She saw her own face stretched into a scream of terror as he forced her head to the side and sank his teeth into the soft flesh at her neck. In horror, she watched as her struggles became feebler until she was finally still. The blond vampire tossed her aside like a rag doll and disappeared into the night without breaking stride.

When her sight cleared, she found she had leapt to her feet, her hands clutched at her neck as if that would protect them from those teeth. Her breaths were coming in short pants and a sheen of sweat had broken out on her brow.

"For pity's sake, why are you just sitting there?" Alice knew her voice was so high that it sounded childish, but she could not care. She felt like a child who had just been told that not only were the monsters lurking under her bed real, they were coming to kill her. Panic gave her daring and that bravado, however fleeting gave her strength to point imperiously at the corridor and snarl at the doctor.

"Move!"

She tugged at his arm and he rose from the cot. Alice waited for him to pass her so that she could follow him. She did not attempt to see where he would lead her, merely let him lead her down the familiar hallway, past many other doors with their tiny windows and, as she gasped, out into the night. She skidded to a halt as the moist air hit her skin and the breeze molded her thin gown to her frame. She lifted her eyes to the sky and was momentarily dazzled by the bejeweled night. Her lips parted and she inhaled through her mouth, tasting the minty flavor of the pine trees near her, the tanginess of damp soil, the salt of what she realized were tears from her stinging eyes.

She was out! Free of that cell, the darkness of the night was incandescent compared to the blackness of her tiny room. The moon glowed like a beacon above her; there was not a single cloud to be seen in the heavens. She listened to the cicadas whirring in harmony with the chirping of crickets and tree frogs. It was a symphony to her silence-deafened ears.

The doctor made a sound of impatience and retraced his steps to where she stood, paralyzed by overloaded senses. He half smiled, half grimace as he moved closer to her. The wind ruffled his light brown hair slightly and it fell over his forehead. He absentmindedly brushed it back with a swipe of his hand before he spoke.

"My apologies for being forward, dear one, but we really have to move, and quickly," he murmured.

Alice felt her feet swept out from under her and her body gathered closely to the doctor's chest. Her own did little to shield her from the chill emanating from his skin even through the layers of his  
clothing, she shrank in on herself in an attempt to embrace and retain her own warmth. She consented to this socially unacceptable familiarity only because of the speed she had seen in her earlier vision, knowing that she would slow him down and flight was their only hope of survival. She closed her eyes tightly as he began to run. The wind now screamed in her ears as they flew through the darkness of the night.

After only a few moments, the doctor skidded to a stop. Alice's eyes popped open and for a minute, everything around her was fuzzy while her eyes acclimated to their surroundings. His face was directed skywards and he was inhaling deeply through his nostrils. Alice was confused, the suddenly frightened. Had the doctor caught the scent of another human? She must really have unappetizing blood if he would choose to hunt another rather than take her vein. And for reasons she could not even remotely comprehend, she was angry at the thought. She really must be little more than a psychic compass with dirty blood to the wretched man. She struggled feebly in his arms and was rewarded for her efforts when he dropped her lightly to the forest floor. She gathered her legs under her and glared up at him.

"Damn!" Dr. Coombs swore. "That stinking, vile, son of a bitch!"

Alice's eyebrows shot into her hairline. That was a first. The doctor had never used that sort of language that she could recall. But then it occurred to her, he had not been distracted by another human's blood. It was the hunter. She forgot how to breathe.

"Oh no." she whispered. "He was here…?"

The doctor nodded curtly, then set about swearing some more. His vocabulary was impressive, Alice was certain at one point that he was even creating some brand new epithets. Dr. Coombs was making a small circuit around the cluster of dogwood trees. Her unappetizing blood forgotten, Alice trailed after him mutely staring futilely at branches he touched or a sniffed leaf.

"What exactly are you looking for?" she asked, picking up a blossom and shredding it. Petal fragments fluttered around her like snowflakes.

"He was here not long ago," he growled. He swatted at a tree branch and Alice squealed in surprise as the entire branch was dislocated from the trunk of the dogwood.

"Clearly this tree was the confederate of the villain, so naturally you are required to punish it," she whispered turning away. Behind her the doctor snorted.

"Wait here," he ordered tersely. Before Alice could respond to the affirmative, he darted away so quickly he was only a blur in the darkness.

Alice absently plucked and shredded several more dogwood blooms as the seconds lengthened into minutes. Had he just abandoned her in the middle of the woods? Worse, was he planning to use her as bait to lure the hunter out in order to create a confrontation? She waited and willed a vision to come, focusing on her own immediate future.

In her mind, she saw the doctor racing effortlessly over the forest terrain, stopping several times to check the hunter's trail, and then returning to her. He gathered her up into his arms again then headed off in the direction they were originally heading.

She felt him before she saw him as he flew back into the clearing. He looked slightly less worried and Alice felt a fraction more optimistic about their eluding the tracker for the immediate future.

"Even though it appears he found the hospital, I think I can get us to my home to give us enough time for your transition." His voice sounded hopeful. "Can you see if we have a chance?"

Alice nodded and stared intently at the shower of petal bits at her feet. The blond vampire was sheltering under the heavy branches of a giant magnolia tree in full bloom. She was pleased to see that the overwhelmingly pungent flowers were exceeding unpleasant to his olfactory senses. He appeared to be growing increasingly angry as her vision progressed, but he did not appear to be inclined to move.

"Is there a magnolia tree on the hospital grounds within sight of where you… kept… me?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes," he replied. "I hate that tree. Those wretched flowers put out the most nauseatingly cloying fragrance that I have been tempted to rip it out by its roots many times each year."

Alice giggled. "Well, the tracker is of the same opinion. He will take cover there for some time – enough, I suspect to allow us to reach safety."

The doctor's shoulders relaxed and he took a deep breath, exhaling the air slowly as he planned his next move. Alice knew what was coming, so she went to stand in front of him. She raised her arms up as a child would to encourage an adult to pick her up. Dr. Coombs scooped her up and cradled her gently in his arms. She felt his lips press softly against her hair, but she said nothing, knowing that by doing so she would embarrass them both.


	4. Revelations

**Revelations**

Alice followed the doctor up the wide stone steps to the wraparound covered porch of the massive house. She clutched the lapels of his laboratory coat to her throat, suddenly conscious of her bare feet and unwashed tresses. Her fingers itched to rake her hair away from her face, but she knew the effort would be wasted. _Silk purse out of a sow's ear_, she thought grumpily. She nervously wet her lips that had become dry to the point of cracking from the wind. The doctor had not slowed his inhumane stride once he was certain they would have a clear shot at reaching their destination.

The laboratory coat was made from heavy cotton, but Alice was chilled to the bone. She tucked her numb fingers into the sleeves of the opposite arms and into her armpits in an effort to bring some warmth back to the freezing digits. She stared down at the hem of the coat pooling around her feet. She knew she was a tiny girl, but this was bordering on silly. Alice felt like she should be bowing low and bringing tea in her makeshift kimono. A small smile played at the corners of her lips. She raised her eyes to watch the doctor as he crossed the large porch to the front entryway. The gaslights on either side of the doors painted his features in a golden hue. He still looked worried. _As well he should_, thought Alice.

Staring around her at the vast veranda and front garden, Alice was frankly astonished. This was a fine house, not the sinister lair as she had expected. There were lights glowing softly from the large windows and as they approached the large double doors, one of them swung open at the hands of a positively ancient woman who beamed at the doctor. The woman's eyes widened as she saw Alice's tiny form hovering behind the doctor.

"Oh good gracious, doctor!" she exclaimed. "You've brought a guest – you should have warned me, I have not prepared - "

The doctor interrupted the woman's excited fluttering. "Madeleine, this is Alice. She is my ward by the decree of her parents," he made the lie sound so convincing that even Alice had to remind herself that this was the first anyone had heard this news. Perhaps the doctor had planned this before; perhaps it was an off-the-cuff excuse that occurred to him seconds before they arrived at his home.

Alice made an awkward curtsey to Madeleine and murmured, "Hello, ma'am."

Madeleine bustled forward, only slightly taller than Alice, and gathered her into her arms in a maternal embrace.

"You poor child!" she said, fussily arranging the doctor's coat on Alice's shoulders. "Get yourself inside where it's warm and out of this unhealthy damp. I'm surprised at you, doctor - taking this young lady out in this weather; she could catch her death of cold..."

On and on she rambled, sometimes berating the doctor fondly for his tardiness, his lack of foresight to the weather, other times decrying her shock over the conditions of Alice's dishabille and bare feet.

"Madeleine, light of my life," the doctor finally laughed and held up his hands in mock defeat. "Could we possibly get a warm robe, slippers and some hot food for Alice? Please bring them to my study. I need to talk to my new ward and we will require some uninterrupted privacy for quite a while."

Dr. Coombs indicated a set of pocket doors on the left side of the foyer and Alice preceded him into a softly lit room lined with hundreds of leather-bound volumes. The glow was coming from a cheerfully crackling fire in the hearth and with a light head; Alice sank into a high backed armchair placed close to the warmth. Her hands and feet had gone strangely numb; she wondered if this is what it felt like before a person fainted from stress or exhaustion.

This room, this house was so incongruous from the place she had been living in that she felt stirrings of anger and resentment blooming in her chest.

How could the doctor leave her in absolute darkness and return to this comfortable and cheerful house every day? How dare he!

As she let her eyes roam slowly around the room, she could tell that the doctor was not a pauper, he was well educated and affluent. The heavy desk under the large windows was ornate and obviously costly. The thick rug her toes were digging into with an enthusiasm that she had not registered was soft and, again, of apparent expense. The mantle was within reach and she traced her fingers lightly over the marble, the intricate carvings of leaves and branches indicated an artisan's skill and care. The scent of freshly baked bread and chicken broth overwhelmed her nostrils and she started as she realized that Madeleine had returned, with a silver tray covered in a white silk napkin gripped ably in her small hands. Over her shoulder, a dark robe trailed down her back.

The doctor relieved Madeleine of the tray, placing it soundlessly on the low table in front of the chair. Alice leaned forward against her will to inhale the pungent steam from the tureen. The soup smelled heavenly, better than anything she could recall eating at the hospital. Again, bitterness flared in her chest and she straightened up quickly, looking away from the tray and its tempting fare.

Madeleine had taken advantage of Alice's distraction to whisk the doctor's coat from her shoulders before settling the heavy robe in its place. Under her admonitions, Alice allowed herself to be jostled about as the robe's sleeves were rolled up so that her hands were revealed and the belt knotted firmly about her tiny waist. Alice felt like she was three years old and being bundled into her father's overcoat. The slippers will lined with what must have been rabbit fur, Alice sighed luxuriously as she wriggled her toes further inside.

Straightening, Madeleine placed the tray on her lap and as the warmth from the soup bowl seeped through the bottom of the tray and the robe, Alice could almost forget the mortal danger she and the doctor were in. He stood a short distance from her on the other side of the hearth, not watching her, but aware of her every move and sound.

She broke a slice of crusty bread in two and watched him silently. Alice realized that his features were largely unknown to her because of the memories he had siphoned away after each "therapy session." Always in the gloom of her cell, his face was ever in shadow and those were the only memories she could recall. _He's a fairly handsome man_, she thought to herself. Everything about him seemed to be elongated, from his face to his very long legs that added to his extraordinary height. His nose was aquiline and slightly crooked, as if it had been broken and reset at some point. The doctor's sandy brown hair was trimmed very close at the nape of his neck, but was longer on top and in the front so that if fell rakishly over his forehead. Alice had a sudden impulse to brush it back with her fingers. If there was one true flaw in his appearance, it was that his ears had larger lobes than Alice would have thought becoming. But, she reflected, it did not detract from the total presentation. If she knew nothing about him and saw him for the first time at a ball or in a library, she would have thought him singularly handsome after a fashion.

She mentally shook herself out of her reverie. She reminded herself that this man she was thinking so handsome had up until an hour ago been keeping her virtually prisoner. Given that he was a vampire and she was a freak of nature, perhaps he had believed that he was doing them both a favor. _Still_, she thought, _he has to drink – ugh- blood, while I get to relish this lovely stew._ Alice did her best to focus on her meal, chewing the morsels of chicken with near ecstasy. It was not until she was soaking up the last remaining bits of broth with the bread that he spoke.

"You have seen something in my future – even though you cannot recall it," he began hesitantly. The doctor refused to meet her gaze, causing anger again to flare in her stomach. "I have to tell you what set the events that will come to pass in motion."

Alice froze in mid-bite. Juices from the soup dripped into the recesses of her mouth from the morsel of bread. She knew what was to come, but why was a facet of her vision that she rarely ever was afforded the luxury of. She attempted to surreptitiously suck the broth from the soft core of the bread silently so that the doctor would continue. She recalled her vision of the doctor questioning her so strongly that she had become agitated; this must have been the session that she had seen in her earlier vision. It had terrified her such that she had attempted to block her mind and his words.

"I have told you this truth countless times," Dr. Coombs began. He was nearly motionless in his anxiety. Alice mirrored his stillness. "I have also made you forget what I have told you." He raised his brows at her mutinous expression.

"Why? For the love of – whom on Earth would I tell?" She sputtered furiously. "More to the point, being incarcerated in that 'hospital' for the Lord knows how long, who would believe me if I were to be allowed loose on the unknowing populace?"

The empty bowl and tray clattered noisily to the floor as she lurched from her seat. She paid no attention to the broken crockery or bread crumbs now scattered across the lovely patterns. She was enraged beyond any measure she could recall.

"No visitors, no family, no one but you has ever come to see me," she railed at him. He had turned from his contemplation of the fire to face her, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, but his gaze steadfastly fixed upon the hearth rug.

"You use me as your personal fortune teller, store me away like a piece of furniture, then wipe out parts of my life as you would chalk drawings from a blackboard?"

She advanced on him, dimly aware of the crunching of china under her slipper-shod feed. Her top of her head barely reached his sternum, but as she glared up at him, she actually saw remorse flood his countenance. He raised his hands as if to fend off an attack.

"Dear one, please return to your seat, I will endeavor to explain, sparing no detail."

Alice's eyes narrowed, searching for any indication of a lie. "You will _not_ make me forget this," she commanded. "You _will_ tell me why you have imprisoned me, where my family is, every detail you have stolen from my mind, you _will_ return to me this night."

He nodded. She did not turn her back on him, retracing her steps while keeping him firmly in her sights. Her hands found the armrests of the chair and she grasped them firmly and sank once again onto the plush fabric. She pointed imperiously at the facing chair.

"Sit. Talk. Do not stop until you have told me everything."

He obeyed her instructions. Very deliberately, he hiked the legs of his trousers up, crossed one leg over the other and settled against the high wingback. Alice thought even the most venerable professor would have to practice the pose Dr. Coombs so effortlessly affected.

"What do you want me to talk about first?" He smiled encouragingly in her general direction without meeting her gaze. It felt to her as if this was an interview for a teaching post. Alice had to work very hard to keep her face expressionless.

"Tell me about what you are," she began. "Then tell me about how I came to be in your custody. Then I want to hear why we are running for our lives, but still have time for a light supper." While her face was impassive, her tone fairly dripped with scorn.

"Very well," the doctor agreed. "On being a vampire, I was sired nearly 116 years ago, in 1804. I have chronicled my life in several dozen journals that I will make available to you… soon." His lips pursed in a soft, sad grimace of a smile.

"I do not particularly enjoy the methods I must adhere to in order to sustain my life, but the exhilaration, the power… it is a powerful force that makes it possible – no – necessary for me to rationalize them. I selected a position of doctor at the Fulton State Hospital here in Mississippi for the sole reason that people are frequently lost to the outside world once they are admitted."

Alice gasped.

"It is an unpleasant facet of humanity that most choose to disregard," he continued. "Hospitals, especially for the deranged or deformed, are ideal for… my kind… because screams and cries for help are ignored, and patient mortality reports are accepted with little dissonance. I do not have such strong cravings as I did in my early years, but I am what I have been made – so I must feed."

He paused to straighten the cuffs of his shirtsleeves to give her a moment to assimilate his words. Alice had been gulping air in great breaths, struggling to keep the soup and bread from coming back up. She clasped her hands together on her lap, but remained in place waiting for him to continue.

"You were brought to the hospital by both of your parents in 1916," he said softly. "You were so subdued. You refused to look at me or your parents the entire time they were there. I thought it was odd, as most patients committed by their family begged and pleaded to be taken home. You merely sat in my office and stared out of the windows as if you knew that would be the last time you would see nature for a long, long time."

Alice felt her eyes well up. She began to mourn. Mourn that child she had been, the parents she could not remember, and the life she never had the chance to lead. Tears slowly began to course down her cheeks, but she did not move to brush them away.

"I have rarely seen two people more in love with their child and still more terrified. Your mother rambled on and on about how you would tell her what was about to happen. As devoutly faithful people, they feared that you were either possessed of exceptional evil or that you were insane and somehow able to guess or influence events. Your father told me that they were committing you to my care only as a last resort. Your parents' social status required them to be very active during the season, you would frighten family and guests with your visions and they feared that you would adversely impact their standing and your… sister's… chances of a successful match when she entered society."

"I have a sister," she whispered. Alice wrapped her arms around herself, a protective gesture that was not lost on Dr. Coombs. He rose and moved past the small table to kneel at her feet in a fluid motion. He covered her hands with his own at her shoulders. They were so cold and hard that the warmth to which Alice had grown acclimated slid away like water down a petal. She had never felt as alone as she did at that moment.

"Yes, they live in your family home not far from here. They came all the way from Biloxi to visit you the first Tuesday of every month for a year after your admittance to the hospital. I must beg your forgiveness for what I did to both you and them. I had been working with you for all that time, trying to understand your gift and how it worked in the hopes that I could help you block or at least control it. You told me that you had seen your parents holding each other and crying as if in true mourning, but that you could not understand the reason. After you returned to your room, I pondered that vision. It suddenly occurred to me that you were God's gift to me, my guardian that would protect me from discovery and possibly the companion I had yearned for in my solitude."

"What else have you done other than imprison me in a tomb that I should forgive?" Alice's tone was thick with emotion.

"The next month, when your parents came for their visit, I lied to them. I told them that you had been stricken with a fever after visiting with another patient and died only that morning. I consoled myself that your parents' grief would pass because they still had a daughter to lavish the love and affection they were too fearful and shortsighted to give you. I resolved to become your sole protector, your guide, from that moment on."

Alice bit her lower lip so hard that she tasted blood. The doctor smelled it too; his nostrils flared but he managed to control his instincts and continue speaking.

"You cannot know – you will undoubtedly despise me more now…" he shook his head sadly. "I saw your parents at a social function not one year after I told them you had died. They did not appear to be suffering continued bereavement. I felt I had done the right thing in taking you from them. You were meant to be mine, my angel to keep and protect."

That was too much for Alice to hear.

"Protect?" she exclaimed. "You call how I lived – no! I cannot even call it living! You call how I was imprisoned protection? You have unmitigated gall, Doctor!"

"You do not understand!" Dr. Coombs held his hands out, palms up in supplication.

"I could not show you preferential treatment, I had to keep you in an undocumented cell so that the staff would not recall who you were and raise a warning."

Alice snorted indelicately. "To be sure, you would want to protect yourself from discovery. Not only are you not human, you are a kidnapper and a liar!

The doctor reached out once more to grasp her shoulders and nodded, accepting her accusation.

"To your third question – now there is a tale that will change your life and undoubtedly end mine."

Alice could only stare at him.


	5. The Hunter

**The Hunter**

"Please," Alice finally whispered. "I need for you to not be so close to me. You are so very cold and I feel… trapped."

He nodded, rose and returned to the chair he had just vacated. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his expression intense.

"I am forced to deal with some rather unscrupulous individuals," he said. "A police inspector had recently come to my attention as a man who regularly beat his wife and children. He also liked to take his frustrations out more creatively on women who were… not his wife."

The doctor gave a shrugged in a Gaelic fashion, dismissing prostitution in light of the violence inflicted upon the females.

"I had determined to put an end to his activities; hide his body and 'help' his widow discover an unknown stash of wealth that would enable her and the children to live comfortably and without fear."

"I'm sorry," Alice interrupted. "You will have to excuse me for being a bit slow in grasping your intentions. You planned to kill an officer of the law and give money to his wife? Does that not go against your training as a doctor?"

He quirked an eyebrow in what Alice could only interpret as derision. "Dear one, I hunt people who hunt people. I help where help is merited."

"Oh," she snorted. "That is _very_ tidy. Do you have that on a plaque over your desk?"

"The inspector was within my grasp when I was interrupted by another vampire who was not known to me. He was a nomad, by the condition of his clothing and the lack of finesse in meeting a stranger for the first time. I am afraid that I became territorial and aggressive with him. The human was mine to kill for the crimes he himself committed while he was supposed to be protecting society. The hunter was determined to thwart my efforts. I suspect now that if I had merely turned away, that act would have insulted him as well. This male appeared to have been created for no reason other than to bring strife to the lives of other vampires; it may amuse him to be such a destructive force of nature."

Alice thought this tale sounded more like one better suited to a novella than one that would actually occur in the world around her. A cruel and corrupt policemen? A plan for murder and a mysterious bounty uncovered? It sounded like a fantastic and far-fetched dime store novel. But then, she had believed vampires to be the stuff of legend and scary stories before this day had begun. She kicked off the warm slippers and brought her legs up, tucking her feet under her.

"You need to understand that our species does not get on very well with each other for excessive lengths of time. Where human arguments can come to blows, your kind rarely escalates beyond heated words and the occasional fisticuffs. Vampire emotions are heightened because our senses are so exceptional. We fly into rages that, even if they pass quickly, can have disastrous results. A fight between two vampires can destroy buildings; we have to be very cautious when we move amongst you humans."

"Are there a fair number of… your… kind… living here?" Alice asked. She searched her limited memory, but finding very few recollections of her life, she gave that up as a bad job. The good doctor had seen fit to rob her of so much of her life it was a miracle she did not simple sit and drool stupidly at him.

"No, not here," Dr. Coombs replied. "We are fairly easy to detect when one knows what to look for."

Alice sat forward slightly. "What do you strive to conceal from us?"

The doctor raised his eyes to hers, looking directly at her for the first time. Alice gasped. In the dancing firelight, his eyes seemed to glow like rubies.

"Good Christ!" she cried softly. "How can you possibly hide those eyes away from society?" she demanded.

"With great difficulty," he admitted. "The more time passes after I feed, my irises fade to black and I am able to interact more easily with humans. Human blood turns my eyes this color."

"How often do you have to…" Alice struggled with the word. "…feed?"

"I am of considerable age; therefore I do not have to hunt nearly as frequently as I did when I was first sired. I usually need to take blood only once a month," he sounded proud, and yet shamed with this confession. "When I was younger, I hunted nearly once a week. I had to move quite often to avoid detection."

"I can imagine that a community would begin to notice when their numbers are being culled," Alice said with mild cynicism. Dr. Coomb's eyebrow shot nearly to his hairline in acknowledgement of her jibe.

"I do appreciate your disdain for my diet," he murmured. "It is not a subject that is foreign to my self-loathing these many years."

Alice pressed her lips together, and waved her hand to indicate she was ready for him to continue.

"Ah, yes," he said. "Where was I? The hunter had determined to kill not only my mendacious policeman, but his entire family as well. A week ago, I gained a victory over him and killed the human. But what enraged him was the fact that I settled the situation with the family. They are now moving from Mississippi to Florida. The perpetual sunny state of that locale would pose more of an inconvenience for him that I suspect he cared to afford to the enterprise of irritating me."

"So you are unable to function in sun after all?" Alice was unable to hide her surprise. "Would you burn up?"

The doctor chuckled. "No, dear one. Sunlight makes my eyes appear mundane in comparison. I feel quite sorrowful that I will not be able to see your reaction to that spectacle."

"You will not – "

"Please, let me continue," he interrupted. "I had expected that this vampire would move on after his prey was removed from his hunting ground, but I was dreadfully mistaken. We have found that he followed me to the hospital and must have seen one of our sessions. This creature is not only an unparalleled tracker; he seems to be able to ascertain what quarry will gain him the most anguish from his kill's survivors."

Alice's hand flew to her mouth. "You mean to say that he does not hunt just for survival, he kills for sport and sadism?"

Dr. Coombs nodded. He raked his fingers through his sandy blond hair in frustration.

"So," Alice whispered. "He comes for me?"

Again, the doctor nodded. "You have already seen this come to pass in your visions not two nights past."

"Yes," Alice said, her voice turning hard. "We will discuss that habit of yours at length once we reach the conclusion of your tale."

Her chest burned at the loss of so many memories. She suspected that she would never have them returned to her and feared that she would be powerless to block the doctor should he decide to wipe this time from her mind.

"I began our session as usual, by asking you to look into the future and tell me what you saw happening to you," began the doctor. Alice could not help herself. She stopped him again.

"You always ask me to see what will happen in my own future?" she asked. "How is that even remotely logical? I was kept in a hole!"

"You always have a future, dear one," Dr. Coombs replied.

"Assuredly so," Alice snapped acidly. "Until you wipe it clear. That is more monstrous than your being a … vampire."

"May I continue?" the doctor asked, finally showing signs of temper.

Alice nodded curtly, biting her lip again.

"Your vision was that of yourself alone in a room lined with books," he paused and glanced around the study. "You said that you looked as though you were crying most grievously, but no tears were falling from your – your glowing red eyes."

"No!" Alice shouted. Her hands curled into claws on the chair's armrest. "How would such a thing come to pass?"

"I asked you that very thing," Dr. Coombs said, nodding. "You looked inwards again and told me that you will order me to change you and I would acquiesce."

"Surely not!" Alice could not imagine herself volunteering to join the ranks of monstrosities that fed on the blood of humanity.

"I also rejected that future," he said, changing one crossed leg for the other. "You told me that your vision of my decision showed you crumpled on a bed of leaves in the rain, your throat torn and your blood soaking the forest floor beneath you."

Alice forgot how to breathe. She imagined how it must have been to see her own demise. It terrified her beyond words.

"I began to ask you to look to both our futures based on several possible decisions," he continued. "Your responses appeared to leave very few options open to us that would not end in both our destruction."

He sighed.

"I have lived in darkness longer than you have, dear one. A darkness of my own construction, true, but I had accepted my lot in life until you were brought to me."

Alice was still trying to force oxygen in and out of her lungs. She had so many emotions overwhelming her that she was grateful that the man sitting across from her granted her a reprieve and was sitting silently as she struggled to regain control of herself.

"I – may I have a drink?" she croaked finally.

The doctor stared at her in understanding. Rather than calling for Madeleine, he stood and moved to a recessed cabinet and Alice could hear the clinking of crystal as decanter connected to snifter. The amber liquid swirling in the glass as he passed it to her shimmered with gold and umber lights as she grasped it in her shaking hands.

The first tiny sip burned even her lips. She wheezed and clutched the crystal tighter. She took another, larger sip and embraced the fire as it chased over her tongue, and burned a path down to her stomach.

"Thank you."

"Given that your visions have never, ever been wrong to date, I resolved to give up my existence so that you may have a fighting chance at one."

There was a note of pride in his declaration, as though he was about to fulfill a duty that would restore his honor. Alice could only shake her head.

"I would ask you, one final time, to look into your future and tell me what you see as my resolve will only waver if you see any options that will allow us both to escape. Together."

Dr. Coombs looked depleted in her eyes. He had talked himself out of words for the time being.

"Does it always feel like a command performance?" Alice wondered aloud.

She leaned forward and placed the delicate snifter on the table. She sat back and rested her head against the chair back. Her mind faded into mist as it always did when her visions came.

She saw the doctor seated beside her writhing form. The room was dark save for a small window that provided only the barest illumination. Her eyes were closed, but under the pale mauve lids, she could see that her eyeballs were swiveling wildly as if trapped in a nightmare. She was clutching his hand and he was whispering urgently in her ear, though how she could understand him over her own screams, she knew not.

The vision faded to another, showing the doctor and a pale, beautiful man facing each other in a forest. The blond was dressed like a gentleman, but it looked all wrong to Alice. His feet were bare. While his topcoat was of good quality, it was badly cared for. The shirtfront was unfastened and his smooth white chest glowed coldly perfect in the dim light. The canopy of trees allowed narrow beams of moonlight down on the two men. As she watched, the doctor sank into a crouch and launched himself at the mocking face of his opponent.

Alice struggled for breath. This must be the hunter. This must be the vampire who was determined to destroy the doctor through his own end or hers.

Despite his lithe form, Dr. Coombs was an accomplished fighter. The velocity of his opening salvo catapulted the blond vampire a great distance through the trees, yet he returned to the clearing almost instantly. The hunter's response was to knock the doctor to the forest floor with a blow that Alice was sure she felt herself. The two battling vampires grappled on the forest floor, the hunter had pinned the doctor beneath him.

In the doctor's study, Alice screamed in earnest as the doctor's head was torn from his body in her vision. Yet this sight was nothing in comparison to what followed on its trail. Alice watched herself searching the woods, running with speeds that would not be possible for a living human. She had been transformed into this tiny, graceful predator that was searching, searching, searching. She found the doctor's still moving body, yet, to her horror, his head was nowhere to be found. Animated, yet without the entire form, somehow Alice knew that the suffering was unimaginable. Her future self built a low pyre and burned the doctor's body.

As the visions faded, Alice came back to herself. Her body was shaking so hard that she thought she must appear to be having an epileptic attack.

"You. Are. Going. To. Die."

The words sounded broken to her. Her voice sounded dead to her ears. Even though the doctor had chosen his path, Alice felt as though she was the judge sentencing him to death.

He nodded, and his expression tight with a mixture of dread and acceptance.

"I am at peace with my fate, so long as what you see will guarantee your own survival."

Alice focused inwardly again. She thought about becoming a vampire and through the mist, she saw herself again in the study, yet now she saw Madeleine standing at her side. She settled a sleek coat around Alice's shoulders over the chic dress that she did not recognize.

Looking past herself and Madeleine, Alice saw that it was winter. This vision would come to pass in no less than eight months from this night. Focusing back on her own face, Alice saw with mild amazement that her normally pale skin now appeared to be nearly translucent. Her eyes were no longer their merry and warm coffee brown, they were crimson. Though those eyes were a nightmare, there were still laugh lines around them and her mouth. Alice sighed in relief. She would remain as she was, and she would find things to smile about even though she would be forever changed.

Alice came back to the present and looked calmly at Dr. Coombs. She smiled wanly at him.

"You are going to change me," she affirmed. "Tonight. If you do not, we will both be dead in 48 hours."

"I know," he replied.

They looked away from each other and stared at the crackling flames, each lost in their own thoughts.


	6. Plans

**Plans**

In the quiet of the study, the creak of a wheel in a track sounded like a gunshot as it slid open slightly. Both Alice and the doctor jumped, and then glanced at each other with sheepish smiles. They looked towards the door to see Madeleine's silver pompadour precede her merry face.

"Sorry, sir," she said. Then her eyes fell to the rug in front of Alice, taking in the mess of china, crumbs and flatware.

"What in the name of all that is holy have you two been up to?" Madeleine demanded indignantly. "Poor Susan will have a time of it getting that broth out of the Aubusson. That young woman spends more time removing strange stains from fabric in this house than any one serving girl should ever have to!"

She knew she deserved to be rebuked. Alice peeked at Dr. Coombs as Madeleine continued to scold the room in general. It seemed like the housekeeper was too well-heeled to risk rebuking a guest directly, so she settled for scolding the silk napkin.

The doctor's expression nearly caused Alice to lose her composure. Not only did he appear to be embarrassed about the debris in front of Alice's chair, he actually looked intimidated by this woman whom he would have towered over by at least two feet if they were standing toe to toe. As the doctor had pointed out, vampire was a physical state only. Who a person was in their mind should not change. It gave Alice a wider understanding of the world she had been introduced to that night.

"Madeleine," Alice spoke up. "It was my fault. I lost my temper with my… guardian… and forgot the tray was in my lap."

She held up her hands in supplication. She scooted forward to stand up from her chair again so that she could help clear up the mess she had created.

"I'm so sorry about your lovely bowl. I don't know what to say – you must think I am a terrible person."

"Oh pish, posh, dear," Madeleine made a dismissive motion. "Master Bruce told me about you long ago. I feel like I already know you from his glowing descriptions of you."

Alice's startled eyes flew to Dr. Coombs'. He had told his housekeeper about her? What had he been planning before they became the targets of a vampire's hunt?

"Er – I don't know what to say," she stammered. "I must have just tarnished those commendations with this debacle."

She grinned at Madeleine and was gratified to see the elderly woman beaming back at her.

"If you could tell me where a broom and dustbin are, I will have this cleared away very quickly."

Alice knew that Madeleine would not allow her to clean up the broken glass and bread crumbs, but she felt compelled to try. Her brief vision showed that they were going to get along famously in the coming months, but this one person had offered kindness instead of suspicion to her, a stranger. Alice was already coming to view her as a mother. She thought that it was fitting, since her own mother did not have the fortitude to keep her.

"I'm sure you're joking, Miss Alice," Madeleine looked insulted, as Alice expected.

"You have family here, Madeleine?"

Bright blue eyes met hers as the housekeeper knelt down before Alice to begin collecting fragments of the broken bowl. They were lit from within with love when she spoke.

"Oh, yes dear. I have a daughter." Fairly beaming with pride, Madeleine continued. "Hannah is married to a very nice gentleman – nearly as nice as the doctor…"

She shot an affectionate glance at Dr. Coombs, and then looked down to search for wayward bits of china. She continued talking as she brushed at the rug.

"Hannah had a baby boy last spring." A grin split her plump face. "I thought Hannah would be completely incapacitated with joy when little David arrived. Her husband, Matthew, was so proud, I was certain he'd climb onto the roof and shout to the entire neighborhood."

Alice found that her own face mirrored Madeleine's in a wide smile. Her mind phased and she watched as Madeleine cuddled a tiny form swaddled in a soft pink blanket, a cherubic little boy at her side watching the bundle with barely contained curiosity under his parents' indulgent gazes.

"He will be a very strong protector of his sister as they grow," she murmured.

Madeleine's startled gasp made her realize that she had let the proverbial cat out of the bag. She swore, eliciting more gasps, this time, one from Dr. Coombs.

"I apologize, I spoke out of turn."

"A granddaughter?" Madeleine shot to her feet with agility that surprised Alice. "A little girl! Could you tell when? Is Hannah with child now?"

The questions flew at Alice like arrows. She was so amazed by Madeleine's acceptance of her vision that further speech failed her. Her own parents could not bear to have such a freak in their home, but here was a virtual stranger who not only acknowledged Alice's ability, she appeared to be giddy with delight for it.

"Your daughter will have her child in the summer," Alice told her. "Her son will be three years old, and he will be so curious about her that your daughter and son-in-law will have their hands full watching him while he watches over her."

She smiled gently at the now teary-eyed lady in front of her.

"Oh!" Madeleine exclaimed as she calculated the time in her head. "I will have to keep this secret for an entire year!" Her hands flew to her cheeks, and Alice beamed at her.

"Yes, but you will. And," she paused to wink conspiratorially at Madeleine. "You will be suitably surprised and overjoyed when they tell you next Christmas."

Alice waggled her eyebrows in a mock threateningly manner. The doctor chuckled softly, and as Alice glance up, he caught and held her gaze. She realized in that single moment that the entire situation had changed.

She was no longer the terrified victim; he was not the evil villain in a dime store thriller. She finally admitted to herself that Dr. Bruce Coombs was in fact going to save her life. Only, she would be saved in a very unconventional fashion.

As Madeleine finished gathering the tray and its contents together, she was still murmuring happily to herself about the future. Alice and the doctor now stared into each other's eyes. He returned her gaze unflinchingly now. Having drawn the final curtain on his true self, she knew he was not attempting to hide anything from her any longer. His vermilion eyes did not frighten her anymore. Having seen herself with those same orbs, she was becoming quite comfortable with them.

Alice felt an unexpected bud of happiness begin to bloom in her chest. She had experienced almost every emotion this night and she was drained, both physically and mentally. Yet, she felt… strangely free. This man and his servant accepted her; they were not afraid of what she saw or that she would embarrass them. She could not remember many things, but deep in her heart, she knew that the events of this night had created something between herself and the doctor. It wasn't love, she mused. It was more like finding out where one belonged after searching for so long.

Promising to return with tea for Alice, the housekeeper bustled out of the study, and slid the door closed behind her. Alone once more, Alice knew the time had approached to talk about what was coming.

"When you change me," she began slowly. "The hunter will stop following me. His fury will fall upon your shoulders. Before this moment, I did not find that this future gave me any pause."

"I don't blame you for being angry at me." He sounded so despondent that Alice felt her own throat clench with sadness. "In my selfishness, I did everything wrong."

"I want to ask you for a favor, if it would not be too much trouble."

"Anything!" Dr. Coombs leaned forward eagerly. "If it is within my power to do as you ask, the answer is yes."

Alice nodded, and then caught her lower lip in her teeth once more. She knew that he would be confused and angry for the request she was about to make of him. Yet, it occurred to her that if he did not agree to her demand, her future would be drastically and grimly different.

She saw herself seated on a windows seat staring out into the night. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. She was rocking back and forth on the cushion, muttering to herself so fast that it sounded like humming to her now human ears. What made Alice afraid of this vision was the complete absence of the self she knew. This Alice was furious. Deadly anger simply emanated from this creature.

"I need for you to clean this night from my memory."

"What?" he cried, springing to his feet. "Not one hour ago, you forbade me from touching your memory, now you order me to remove it?"

She held up her hands, gesturing for silence. She took a steadying breath and waited for him to regain some of his composure.

"I realize how this sounds, Dr. Coombs. I remember what I said earlier. But knowing what I do now, changes things. I have seen that I will still be here in this house come winter, so please let me finish my thoughts so I can try to make you understand."

The doctor began to pace in front of the fireplace, but nodded for her to continue.

"After tonight, I do not want to know anything regarding how I came to be a vampire. Having that information will taint my future with misgivings and anger. When this transition is finished, the only thing I want to know about myself is my name. Madeleine will help me with acclimating to my role as your ward and heiress. When I next see this world, I wish only to see it for what it will be, not what it was or where I came from."

Dr. Coombs stopped moving and simply stared at her in disbelief and amazement.

"What I do need from you is a plan on how I can be prepared for surviving as a… vampire," she whispered. "Madeleine will not be able to help me with that…"

"I remember from my transition that I could hear what was happening in the chamber in which I was held. If you permit me the liberty of staying with you during this time, I will tell you what I know about our species and the information you may find beneficial to your survival."

Alice could not hide her relief. Her earlier vision did not show her that she was prepared to be a vampire, only that she would become one. She nodded, and slowly stood up. She knew already from earlier visions that he would indeed be staying by her side until nearly the end. Now his appearance to be speaking to her made perfect sense.

"Well then," she said with more confidence than she felt. "Lead on, doctor."

She held out her hand and he took it reverently. He lifted it to his soft and frozen lips and pressed them to her knuckles ever so gently. Alice's heart _galumped_ clumsily in her chest. It was a tender gesture and she reminded herself that Dr. Coombs was not likely inclined towards a romantic relationship, and for that matter, neither was she.

"You must know that I never intended for this to happen," he said softly.

"Yes, I'm sure you meant to keep me in that hole, telling your future and getting cleaned up like a new penny every time," she retorted acerbically before she could stop herself, thinking to keep the mood from turning into something improper.

The doctor's only response was a snort of dismissal. She could tell he wasn't fooled and that they were both in danger of becoming ridiculous. Alice extracted her hand from his and raked her fingers through her tangled hair.

"We will never know now," he said. "I am travelling down an unmapped road at this point, I have formulated nothing. I am relying solely on your foresight to tell me if my steps are true or if I am about to fall into a ravine."

They chuckled together. Alice paused and focused on her immediate future. She saw the scene from earlier in which she was in that small room writhing upon the platform before the doctor. Her movements seemed to be slowing; the doctor's posture appeared to be straightening, as if in hopefulness.

Then, as she watched, her form stilled and the doctor bent forward at the waist, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. Then, never turning his back to her, he backed out of the room. Alice's heart broke as she saw his expression. He was devastated to be leaving her.

As her vision cleared, she clasped his hand tighter.

"Bruce," she whispered.

His eyes widened and he sighed.

"It will be perfect."


	7. Transformation

**_Transformation_**

She was starting to feel foolish. They appeared to be at an impasse as to what they should do with themselves in the aftermath of the doctor's story and her decision. Alice and the doctor continued to glance at each other, both smiling when their gazes met. She realized that if the doctor had only pursued his ambitions by taking her into his confidence, things may have developed far differently. Perhaps she had even seen it in a vision, but she should never know now. Alice suspected that her memories could not be recovered once obliterated.

"If you wanted, could you return those memories you took from me?"

He shook his head sadly.

"My ability only removes memories from an individual's mind; I have never been able to regenerate them. And I have had decades to attempt to do so. I was a fool in the way I handled this situation. I thought that if I kept you from remembering everything you had seen for me, your life would be simpler."

"Hmmm…" she pretended to consider his words. "And when you noticed that instead of having a calming effect on me, that I was becoming increasingly unstable – why exactly did you continue this procedure?" Alice's voice was detached, almost clinical.

"I could not risk anyone at the hospital accidentally discovering where I had hidden you. If that happened, you may have told them what I was doing. I did not want to risk my discovery or your loss."

"You're right," Alice concurred. "You were a fool."

She shrugged, holding no malice for the past that she could not change. They were moving through the house, down a brightly lit hallway. The doctor stopped by a smaller paneled door under the grand staircase.

He opened the door and took up a small lantern placed just inside the opening on a shelf. He lit the lamp and passed it to Alice. She stared past him in growing unease. Her hand brushed his as she accepted the handle. Alice was expecting the chill of his skin, so his touch did not disturb her so much as the yawning darkness of that open doorway.

"I need to let Madeleine know what will be happening," he murmured. His brow was furrowed with worry. "I think she should leave until this is finished."

"I wouldn't hurt her," Alice protested. "But I understand your decision. I cannot see what I will be like right away and I would never be able to forgive myself if I hurt her by accident."

She turned away and held the lantern out before her. Alice took a step down into the blackness of the cellar and panic flared briefly in her chest at the thought of willingly descending into darkness. She shook her head, squared her shoulders and moved forward confidently. She paused on the first step as she remembered something.

"Please tell her that tea will not be necessary," Alice smiled wryly. "But if she happens to have a bowl of blood handy…"

"That you can jest at a moment like this," the doctor chuckled, his eyes crinkling. "Is just beyond my understanding. You are a very strange girl with an unexpected wit."

The lantern cast a weak glow as she held it aloft before her, turning in a small circle. The light fell on a long table directly across from the stairs. Alice recognized it as the platform that would support her during her transformation. It was suddenly very real to her. This decision to become a monster voluntarily would have been unimaginable this morning. But give her some homemade bread and chicken stew and she was galloping towards her doom. Her lips parted in a tiny, self-mocking smile. Alice heard the cellar door creak open. Then a second later, Madeleine's voluminous skirts and petticoats flowed down the stairs, rustling like dried leaves. The elderly woman rushed over to Alice and her tiny frame was encompassed by Madeleine's fierce embrace.

"Be brave, my dear one," she whispered. Alice was shocked that Madeleine's face was suffused with joy. "I will be waiting for you when it's done – I will pray for you the whole time."

Alice's startled eyes flew to the doctor, but her mind had phased into a scene where Madeleine was crying before her. She would have to be the one to tell the housekeeper that her doctor would never be returning to this house and do her best to comfort her in her grief. Alice watched as Madeleine climbed back up the stairway. She was frankly overwhelmed; not only by Madeleine's acceptance, but by the new burden she had acquired. She would need to look after this woman who was to become her surrogate mother. Obviously, Madeleine was aware of the fact that Dr. Coombs was a vampire and what puzzled Alice was that vampire and human lived in the same space. The doctor must be gifted with extraordinary control in order to work in what must be the vampire equivalent to a box of bon bons, so having human servants must not be an overwhelming temptation for him.

How long would it take her to acclimate to Madeleine's presence after her transition so that the elderly woman was not in constant danger of being around her? Based on her visions, she would be able to control herself, but determination and instinct would conflict. She knew that she would have to keep a tight rein on herself around humankind. After a moment's pause, Alice nodded her head and turned to the table. She glanced over her shoulder.

"Could you please help me up?" she asked.

She never heard him cross the space, but a mere second later, she felt his ice-cold hands grasp her waist and she was lifted up as though she weighed no more than a teacup. She swung her legs up onto the table and self-consciously tucked her nightgown around her legs. She lowered herself backwards onto her elbows. Dr. Coombs leaned forward, but uncertainty was etched on his features in the dim glow of the lantern.

"Can I have a moment?" she asked to give them both some time to regain their composure. He nodded and straightened back up.

She focused on the decision to accept the change and immediately saw that she would lie back and he would simply bite her neck. It seemed to Alice that he then licked the wound as if he was lapping up any extra droplets, but she realized it was to seal the wound.

"I'm ready," she said, hoping that she sounded confident and optimistic. She was terrified of the pain she was sure to follow. She stretched back out and waited, forcing her shoulder blades down her back to expose more of her neck for him.

"You amaze me, Mary Alice Brandon." His whisper caressed her like a velvet glove.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. Was the doctor playing at some kind of final jest? Alice gasped as her full name settled over her like a soft quilt. _Oh no!_ Her mind reeled at the revelation of her true and full name.

"Gah! I still remember everything! Put those teeth away!" she shouted, shooting back up into a sitting position. She cupped the doctor's cold face in her tiny hands until their eyes met.

"Oh damn," the doctor muttered. "I was rather hoping you might forget about your request."

"What would that truly accomplish?" Alice sighed. "I have seen that if you chose to leave this information intact, I will become a wraith of hatred and heaven only knows what path that would lead me down. I do not want to even _try_ to foresee that," she said in a warning voice, correctly interpreting his intention to request she attempt a viewing.

"Yes, yes. I know, and yet – it will be as if I never was when this is finished…"

Alice's thumb stroked the thin cheek of the man before her. She nodded, confirming and mourning the simple fact of his fear. She would not remember him or her time at the hospital. But the voiding of her memories of this entire period of her life was of vital importance to her success as a vampire.

"Do your magic," she ordered. "Only my name and what I need to know to be a good… vampire." She offered a small smile to soften the words.

As Alice stared into the crimson depths of Dr. Coombs' eyes, she felt like her brain was becoming foggy; it was different than the fuzziness she experienced with visions. She saw the events and memories she'd had over the past several hours blur in front of her as if she was watching them from the window of a train car. She felt a lethargy creep over her and her eyes began to droop slightly.

"Alright, dear one," he murmured. "It's done. Lie back."

"But I can still remember…" Alice mumbled.

"Yes, but when you wake up, everything will be gone as you wanted."

"Huh." Alice felt completely fluid. "Alright then."

She stretched her neck out again, and clenched her eyes closed tightly. She flinched slightly when Dr. Coombs' lips grazed her flesh. She felt a pressure on her skin, but the pain she was expecting did not come. She felt him lick the bite marks and couldn't help giggling at the tickling sensation. She opened her eyes in puzzlement.

"I thought that it would…" her words trailed away as the venom began coursing through her body. "Oh damn."

Her neck felt like a branding iron had been laid against it. She struggled to lift her hands to brush the heat away, but the doctor had grasped them both firmly. She whimpered as the pain mounted.

"It won't help. You have to be strong, it will get much worse from here out," Dr. Coombs whispered, his voice heavy with sadness. "I'm sorry for what must happen, but I will be here the entire time, as you well know."

Alice was crying now. The burning was moving down her arms into her hands and from her chest into her stomach. Her back bowed off the table as the fire blazed through her. In her mind, she watched as visions faded in and out so quickly that they created a separate burning all their own. Time stopped moving altogether, she had no idea how long she had been in agony. As her mind and body absorbed and transformed the venom, Alice became aware that someone was screaming. She knew it must be her own voice, but she could not grasp any physical truth but the agony. A vision came into sharp focus suddenly. A pale and inhumanly striking man had pulled up a tall stool at the end of the table where Alice's head was. He grasped her face in both his hands and began speaking. Alice knew that she would hear him and focus on his voice rather than the transition from that point on. She also knew that he would not stop talking for the remainder of the process.

Dimly, she heard the sound of four wooden legs make contact with the room's stone floor and smelled the telltale scent of the stranger as he settled himself upon it. She wanted to cry out in ecstasy when his bitterly cold hands cupped her flaming cheeks.

"Dear one, I hope you are able to pay attention," his voice was low and soothing. "I will repeat this until… well until I have to leave in two days' time, and I'm ashamed to admit that now it has begun, I am… I am nearly out of my head with anticipation to see what you will become. I am positive you will be perfect in every facet, more than you were a single night ago."

Alice's brain latched onto that telling insight. She had been burning for an entire day. Her mind phased from the visual flames to the same room, only now the man was looking unkempt but supremely pleased. She heard church bells pealing in the distance, it was Sunday. Two more days, only two. A blast of heat swept through her, dissolving the visions to ash.

But now she had a finite time that she had to endure this tortuous fire, and she had already come through one of the three days. The man's glacial fingers did not warm from prolonged exposure to her skin and Alice focused on those tiny islands of ice. As her mind uncoiled itself from the torment of the fire, she was able to hear and absorb what he was saying. He was talking about the strength that vampires enjoyed, how her skin would be as hard as diamonds which would enable her to hunt better and defend herself if necessary. He talked of speed and improved senses, hearing, vision, scent. He even went on a tangent about several theories he was formulating on her visions' accuracy and scope. If she wasn't being cremated alive, she may have found his hypotheses amusing.

"Your heart is slowing down, dear one," the stranger said after a time. "I believe you are coming to the final and most petrifying part for you. The venom has worked its way through your blood. It's taking over your heart and it will stop beating. You are about to die – but you have seen what is to come, so you know that this moment is fleeting for all its terror. Do not fight it, the more you fight, the longer it will last."

Alice's heartbeat was reduced, beat upon beat, until she could not tell what she was struggling for more; her breath or to fight off the fire still blazing through her limbs. She fought to adhere to the man's advice and accept her body's death so she could move past it. Her body did not wait for her resolution, it simply evolved. Her heart stopped, and yet her mind remained alert and she processed this segment in her transformation with a mixture of amazement and panic. Her body gave one final and tremendous shudder, and then Alice lay still. She felt her limbs straightened by infinitely tender hands. Her vanity was absurdly grateful for the restoration of her dignity.

The stranger had stopped speaking during this time, as if he were monitoring her progress like a physician watching over a patient at the hospital. Once he was confident that she had passed beyond her body's physical death but the change was still underway, he continued in a more confident tone.

"To your point about being 'good'," he said. "Your own conscience and morals will guide you. You will not find that your transformation will make you any less of the person you inherently are. The others of my kind who enjoy the torture of humans before they… feed… were more likely to be cruel before they were turned. You will cross paths with many vampires, some will be the monsters we are made to be in works of fiction, and others will be kindred spirits to you. My one and only wish is that I would have been here to be part of your future. "

At these words, Alice's vision lanced to a man facing her in the rain. The speed and impact the vision arrived with was so different than any other that she could remember that it startled her. Brilliant red eyes that were terribly haunted, yet at the same time filled with unquestioning adoration. Full lips stretched into a smile tinged with sadness. Dark gold hair framed a heartbreakingly beautiful face. He was gone in an instant and Alice wanted to cry out at the loss.

The man had barely paused for breath. "I am leaving everything I have to you, including Madeleine." She could hear the smile in his words, as though he was telling a joke that she should already know the ending to. "Although I am fairly certain that she would stay with you regardless of my wishes. So, while I believe you will feel the urge to wander for a time, this place will always be here for you when you need a sanctuary."

Alice wanted to thank him for his generosity, but she could not recall his voice or put that voice to a face. Who was this person talking to her of vampires and sanctuaries? What was happening? She wanted to ask these questions and more, but her body would not respond. She only felt the flames of pain racing up and back her limbs, leaving trails of ash in their wake.

"It is the only thing I can think to do to make up for what I have done. I give you my home and possessions and life eternal, please, please, please give me your forgiveness." His voice broke with tears that he could not shed.

He continued to tell her about his world, and as he talked, Alice began to feel the burn diminish ever so slightly. As he began his recitation for the fifth time, Alice tuned him out for a moment to think about her own future. She wanted to know what was to become of her. She felt a moment of dizziness and to her astonishment, she could see herself pale and beautiful running through trees, leaping over fallen trees and landing nimbly on the budding branch of a white oak tree. Alice watched herself in fascination. She was flawless, her skin glowed in the pale moonlight, and her lips were parted in a smile of amazed wonderment.

As the vision faded, Alice became aware of the silence of the room. It was so absolute that she could positively taste it. The void grew until it felt as though it weighed a thousand pounds. The man was gone; Alice could not smell him as strongly as she had a short time ago. He must already have left, perhaps even already met his fate. What she did smell was more appetizing than anything she could think of. Something pungent and sweet, like chocolate and flowers mixed with rich spices.

She could not move her limbs yet, but she could feel strength seeping back into her limbs. She returned to the reflection of the strong and gentle male's voice that had been her companion in the fiery pain. She could recall every word, but there was no face to associate with the voice. Yet Alice found that no matter what she tried to think about, whatever was in the room that smelled so delicious kept pulling her attention back to it. Somehow she knew that the source of that fragrance was ten feet to her left. Under that heavenly aroma, there was a far less appetizing stench that was moving unsteadily. Alice tracked the stink to her right, above her head behind her, and then back to her right. She thought it smelled a bit like rotting meat, yet how could something decomposing be mobile?

The ridges of the table she was laying on pressed into her back through the thin cotton of the nightgown she was wearing. The uneven surface did not bother her, even though her body was very aware of every bump and knot in the wood. As motion was not yet available to her, she simply rested. Alice was keenly cognizant of the passage of time. The cool air of the cellar began to warm ever so gently as the dawn crept over her form, commencing at her toes. She felt sunlight warming her arms and the warmth was sumptuous, not excruciating.

The warmth of the sun moved up to her face and its light changed from white to pink and from pink to black. When the last traces of natural illumination died, Alice knew that the moment had arrived to open her eyes.


	8. Awake

**Awake**

Her lids rolled back over her eyes like a heavy velvet curtain. The beams of moonlight signing from the tiny window above her were caught and fragmented by tiny dust motes swirling listlessly in the stagnant air of the cellar. Alice was mesmerized by the diamond-like crystalline formations that danced overhead as her breath moved them ever so slightly.

The silence was heavy on her ears. The subterranean walls acted as a damper for any sounds outside. The only discernable noise was the hissing of the oil soaked wick as it burned in the hurricane lamp somewhere off to her right. As she listened, hearing a sort of music in the sizzle, it grew fainter until it ceased altogether. The glow against her eyelids flickered as the flame died away as its oil source dried out entirely.

Her throat was so dry it was becoming painful for her, the thirst overwhelming. That delectable fragrance was stronger to her left and she craned her neck in that direction. Her gaze fell on several large glass jars of deep red liquid lined up neatly on shelves against one cellar wall. It took a sixteenth of a second for Alice to realize that the mouth-watering scent was blood. Human blood. Venom filled her mouth and spurred her to action when nothing else would.

She had no sooner considered sitting up than she found herself in that position. She swung her legs over the edge of the table and sprang from it with such speed and lightness that for a moment, Alice was frozen in amazement. There was no light in the room now with the lantern burned out, but she did not need any. Though the only light in the room came from the moon shining through the tiny window, it may as well have been midday. The diamonds of dust swirled madly now from her movement and she was distracted again. She giggled as she inhaled some of the dust particles and they tickled her nose. The chiming sound startled her.

The natural inhalation from her laughter brought the fragrance and tang of the stored blood to her tongue and Alice swallowed convulsively. Again, the mere thought of moving to the shelves holding the glass jars was instantly translated into motion. Alice blurred forward and had to force a halt to her momentum with her hands. The jars clinked against each other with her impact. The aroma was so strong that Alice felt faint and not a little crazy from the need to drink. She forced herself to calm down, no easy task with her thirst driving rational thought from her mind.

"Come on, girl," a high, musical voice called out softly. _Good Lord, was that her voice?! _She tried again. "You can do this." Oh yes, that chiming bell of a voice most certainly did come from her own lips. She really could not recall what her voice normally sounded like; perhaps this was not a new development. It was likely that her improved hearing was identifying tones and resonances that her human ears would not have been able to. She forced herself to move very slowly. Her hands were shaking as she reached for the closest jar of blood.

The jar must have contained two gallons of blood easily. She could not be sure of how much blood was in the human body, and at the moment, she truly could have cared less. The contents of the jar were preserved with a thick layer of wax. Alice broke the seal easily and the exotic chocolaty spice bloomed up. A growl rose from her chest as the thirst won out over propriety.

She raised the rim of the jar to her lips and the velvety liquid slid over her tongue and down her throat. This was heaven. This was bliss. _Oh goodness_, she thought._ If this is all I get to consume for the next several hundred years that is just Jim Dandy with me._ Alice savored the blood, but made no effort to slow her frantic gulping. She could not remember tasting anything this sinfully delightful. Before she knew it, she had the jar tilted upside down against her mouth. It was empty and she was still thirsty. She broke the seal on a second jar and practically inhaled that blood as well.

When she had consumed that second bottle of blood, some of Alice's equilibrium returned. She looked at the rows of jars and wondered how long they would last her. Her new mind had no trouble calculating that she could reasonably drink from this supply for a number of days so long as her capacity did not exceed two jars. It would take some time to determine her hunger and need to drink, but for now, the panic over not having enough blood receded.

She tilted her head to the side, and listened as hard as she could for any noises in the basement or floor above. A scurrying startled her and she blinked. Then her eyes flew wide as she realized that in that blink, she had leapt from the shelf to the table top and was crouched defensively. Her fingers were curled into claws held before her. The scratching was moving along the floor and her now enhanced eyes quickly found the tiny brown mouse that was generating the noise.

Alice's lips puffed out in a soft "pffwah" as she released the oxygen she had caught in her lungs during her leap to the tabletop. She stood up where she was and it was a testament to her diminutive stature that even on top of the table, her head only just reached the joists of the flooring above her.

"So you are the smelly one ruining the air down here," she murmured at the mouse.

Indeed, that stink that she had noticed at her awakening was coming from the rodent and it still smelled awful to her, but it was not as potent as it had been at the peak of her hunger. The animal froze and its beady eyes stared at Alice. She could almost sense its indecision on what direction to scurry to flee from this new predatory being. Alice merely watched it for a time, and after an interminably long two minutes, it made a tiny hesitant step along its original path. When she made no move towards it, the mouse made a few more steps. Still no attack, Alice listened to its heartbeat increase as it made a dash for the corner of the cellar where a tiny crack in the stone wall afforded it some protection.

_It is odd_, Alice thought. _The mouse has blood running through its veins, and yet I am repulsed by it._ The blood in the jars was obviously human, so she concluded that not all blood would smell the same to her. She sank to the tabletop and kicked her legs out so they were hanging over the side. Her tiny bare feet swung freely as she mused about just how unappetizing the mouse's blood had smelled to her. If she were utterly desperate, she thought that maybe she could survive on the blood of rodents or the like, but even that thought was completely abhorrent to her.

She stared around her, trying to remember where she was or how she had come to be there. The only memory she had was the voice of the now-absent male. Even his voice in her mind did not conjure a face to match it. She recalled every word of his lecture with strange clarity, she knew her name and that she was a vampire. But beyond that, there was nothing. Alice took a deep breath. She knew she did not need to breathe, but the action was reflexive not required. Perhaps it was the very absence of every other memory or recognition of self that kept her from flying to pieces with the knowledge that she was alive, but yet not alive. She rested her palm against her chest, no heartbeat _galumped_ under her fingers, but still this did not worry her.

Her concern was the fact of her very aloneness. There was no one here to explain anything to her or tell her who she was or how she had come to be in this place. She wondered whether she was imprisoned in this cellar or if she might be free to leave. She ought to have been frightened, yet she felt completely peaceful and not a little (what was the word?) excited. Yes, she was tingling with anticipation.

The light through the tiny window before her was turning purple. Dawn was fast approaching, and Alice wondered what it would bring with it. The window and wall before her blurred out to a scene of trees. She was dressed in boy's clothing and running with blinding speed towards the rising glow of the sunrise. She did not recognize the surrounding forestry, but she seemed to know where she was heading.

"Boy's trousers?" she wondered aloud, wrinkling her pert nose. "How tacky."

But she saw the pile of fabric resting on one of the steps next to a pair of black riding boots, so she knew where the ensemble in her vision came from. Pursing her lips, she hopped lightly down from the table once more and blurred across the cellar to gingerly shake out the clothes that had been left for her. There was a pair of tiny bloomers and a soft cotton chemise embroidered with tiny pink roses. Alice's eyebrows twitched as she wondered who had left these undergarments for her. They were made with delicate stitching, obviously handcrafted and not utilitarian. She laid them aside and shook out the long-sleeved white shirt that was obviously male in its construction. The fabric was satin smooth linen and Alice simply enjoyed its feel under her fingers for a minute before laying it atop the chemise. The fawn colored breeches were the oddest thing in the pile. She knew they would fit her like a glove just by looking at them, but she balked internally at the idea of presenting herself to the world in the guise of a male.

Alice shrugged after a moment and dropped the trousers onto the step. She whisked the thin nightgown over her head, balled it up, and tossed it negligently to the side. She underestimated the strength behind that unthinking gesture. The garment sailed across the room like a bullet and hit the far wall with a dull _thwump_. Alice could only stare in surprise.

"That man was not kidding about strength," she mused quietly. There could be untold advantages to being an inhumanly strong female who looked like a wood sprite. She made a mental note to test her strength, and soon.

She slid into the undergarments, enjoying the whisper soft lightness of the material against her skin. The shirt followed and Alice was delighted by how the sleeves were just long enough for her arms. The cuffs fastened closely at her wrists and gleamed brightly in the gloom of the changing light of the room. She had to think for a moment about the britches. She turned them one way, then back. _Do the buttons go on the front or in the rear?_ she wondered.

Alice settled for donning the pants with the buttons in the front, even though it went against feminine dressing when nearly everything buttoned up the back. She was pleased when the shirt was tucked neatly into the waistline of the breeches and the effect was not unpleasant. She peeked into the opening of the riding boots and discovered a pair of white stockings tucked inside. They slid smoothly over her feet and calves, tucking nicely under the fitted hem of the pant legs. Like the pants, Alice was sure the boots would be a perfect fit, and sure enough, when she stepped into them and settled her weight evenly, they were snug and sublimly comfortable.

She wondered how she looked. Being such a tiny girl, she often feared that she would always be mistaken for a child or a tall, gangling boy. As she stared down the front of her body, she noticed that the soft cloth clung to curves that she never noticed. She glanced at the gown crumpled in a small pile on the floor. It may have been that the nightdress was not cut to display a girl's figure to be sure, but when had she developed a woman's body? She wished she could remember.

Alice looked behind her again, to the shelves full of jars of delicious crimson fluid. The urge to stay down here in the cellar and guard these containers of ambrosia was very strong. But her vision pulled at her. She had to be in the woods before the sun rose, she did not know why, or where. She would rely on her newly formed sensory arsenal to guide her to where she needed to be.

Laying a hand on the railing not for balance, but to experience the texture of the smooth wooden railing, Alice made her way in forced leisure to the door at the top of the steps. She was going to have to appear to be _normal_ by human standards, which meant that she was not going to be able to zip from place to place like a hummingbird. She wanted to flit and zoom, but she knew that she would have years and years to play. Right now, she felt that if she was not in those woods by the time the sun rose, it would be very bad for her.

"Right then," she murmured. "Let's go my girl."

She opened the door and peeked her head around the corner. The long wide hallway was empty; no sounds came from the rooms in either direction. The air smelled of roses, beeswax, leather and sunshine. Alice closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. It smelled so clean, so bright that she wanted to weep. The moonlight shone brighter up here, naturally because there must be more windows available to let in the illumination. To her right, she smelled chicken, bread, and bleach. Strangely, the food smelled as unappetizing to her as the bleach. That must be the kitchen. She wanted nothing from that room unless it had a door that opened right to the spot in the forest that she had to be in.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded tiny and bell-like in the thick silence of the house.

She glanced one more time down the stairway to the shelves of blood. _Oh for pity's sake_, she thought. _It will still be there when you return!_ Giving herself a little mental shake, she stepped out from behind the door under the staircase and headed in the opposite direction from the kitchen. The entire floor was dark, and there were no humans as far as she could hear or smell. She wanted to browse through the rooms, but like the blood downstairs, they would be waiting for her when she got back to the house.

At the end of the long hallway, Alice paused at the double front doors. To her right, there was a hall tree with a large mirror positioned so that anyone entering or leaving the house could check their appearance. Alice caught sight of herself in her peripheral vision. She rotated slowly to face her reflection. _Was _that_ what she looked like? _Her mind simply could not reconcile that exotic creature with the girl who Alice had been living with her entire life. She knew she was pixie-cute, warm brown eyes, short dark brown hair – normal in every way. But this, this face belonged to someone else. If her heart had still been beating, it would have galloped away from her.

Her skin was alabaster, pure and perfect ivory. Her face was heart-shaped, cheeks high and delicate above her jaw line that tapered into a narrow chin. Her lips were positively kissable. They were full and turned up at the corners in a natural smile. Alice noticed even in the dark that her features did not bear the telltale human characteristic of a rosy hue; they were so pale as if she had never seen the sun in her entire life. It was a bit eerie to look at. She wrinkled her nose at her reflection playfully; she had never given much thought to its presence on her face, but now that she had noticed it, she thought it was just darling if she did say so herself. Dark brows arched over fantastically large eyes, and when Alice finally made herself focus on those orbs she was lost. They were astounding. The scarlet irises fairly glowed in the darkness of the foyer. Framed by a thick fringe of black lashes, Alice's amazing eyes were glorious and terrifying to behold.

She raised her hand to her face and leaned closer to the glass. She could see a light dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. _Oh bother_, she thought. _I suppose it was too much to hope that they would not survive the transition._ With that same hand, Alice tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ears. Those too, were tiny and perfect. Alice had a wild urge to tuck a gardenia there and the mental image of a tiny woman in men's clothing with a flower in her hair struck her as laughable. What would suit this outfit was a stable lad's cap that she could pull down over her forehead to conceal her fantastic eyes, but the only hat present on the hall tree was a gentleman's top hat. It looked strangely forlorn resting on its peg with no others to compliment it.

With a last look at her reflection, Alice smoothed the breeches over her hips and grasped the front door handle. She was a bit surprised that the doors were not locked or chained. It was a bit dangerous to risk an unsuspecting human to stumble across a newly created vampire, so why would the owners of the house not take the necessary precautions? As she stepped across the threshold onto a large porch, Alice closed the door behind her quietly but firmly. She herself did not have a key and did not want to give the impression that the house was unattended.

She waited in the shadows for a moment to watch the other houses closest to the one from which she had emerged. Yellow light poured from many windows out onto front gardens, bathing them in buttery radiance. Shadow people moved behind filmy curtains or open windows with the sashes thrown up in the summer air. They were completely, and in Alice's opinion, safely unaware that there was now a predator in their midst. But she was not hungry just now, not with her belly being almost uncomfortably full.

Alice breathed in deeply through her nostrils. She caught the scents of lilac, grass, earth, and faintly, the same scent of the male who had been with her in the cellar. As her brain recognized that smell, her mind again showed her the image of running through the woods. She turned her head slowly from side to side, searching for a lessening or increase in its strength. She bounded lightly down the stone stares to the cobblestone walkway and headed west, following the male's trail. _Ha!_ she thought. _I'm a two-legged bloodhound._ Then the double entendre struck her and she laughed out loud as she ran. She was a tracker and hunter to be sure. _But with a better sense of style,_ she quipped silently.

Alice did not slow as she headed into the woods ten and a half miles away from the house. It was still dark, but she knew that it would be about an hour before the sun was cresting the horizon. Even though she was running flat out at a speed that made the trees and undergrowth blur by, her mind was not engaged in the effort. She was searching, searching, searching, when suddenly there was a new scent mingling with her original target. It was a dark and aggressive odor that nearly overpowered the freshness of Alice's male.

Alice kicked off from the ground in mid-stride and flung her tiny form through the air. She alighted with effortless grace on the branch of a white oak tree. Her landing did not even cause the bough to bend as she put her full weight upon it.

"This is a hell of a way to travel," she murmured softly. "Now, let me think… The new scent most likely belongs to someone I probably do not want to meet, so go carefully, my girl."

She inhaled deeply again, the stranger's scent was not any stronger here than the male she was searching for. This was a new effort for her, but she was fairly positive that the second person was no longer in the immediate area. She sniffed again and reacquired the trace aroma from the house. Alice leapt from the tree and was running again the instant her feet touched earth. She was getting close now, very close. Her eyes scanned the forest floor as she sped silently over damp leaves and underbrush.

There! An anomaly in the green and brown of the woods, she saw an arm slung over a fallen tree trunk. Hope flared in Alice's chest as she saw that it was moving. The male was still alive! But as she slid to a halt near the fallen body, Alice was horrified to see that even though the body was still twitching, there was no head. Venom rose in her mouth rather than bile and she grimaced in revulsion. This was monstrous! Curiously, while Alice was revolted, she was not surprised. She had not seen this that she could recall, but she had been expecting it.

_How strange,_ she thought. Alice stared around the tiny clearing, searching for the decapitated vampire's head, yet her inhumanly sharp eyes found nothing. The body was convulsing violently. As she watched it, her mind phased to a scene in which she was gently laying the male's form on a small pyre as flames liked the kindling. _Oh, of course_, she thought. She set about gathering kindling, no small feat considering much of the forest was still damp from an earlier rain. She ranged farther and farther away from the body searching for the necessary firewood. When she had enough, she constructed a small plateau and rubbed two sticks together to start a tiny fire. She fed the small flames for a time, and then moved the sticks to the pyre. As the flames caught hold of the larger twigs and branches, Alice gathered up the remains of the fallen vampire.

She placed him softly on the bed of branches and leaves, and arranged his arms and legs neatly. If he had still had his head, he could have been simply resting. Alice sank gracefully onto the nearby tree trunk and watched the body burn until there was nothing left and the fire died out on its own. Two people had died last night, but one would go on. She had no idea why she had been changed into a vampire, and without any memories to base her future decisions on, Alice felt like she had a clean slate to fill and new chalk to write with. She had an opportunity to start fresh, unfettered by her past or external expectations. She could be anyone she wanted to be, and she owed it to the vampire who created her to live up to her full potential.

The last embers died out as the sun rose above the canopy of the giant trees overhead. The forest was still cool and shrouded in shadows. It was still unnaturally quiet, as if the wood's normal population still knew there was a predator in the area and was giving Alice a wide berth. She sat for a time simply listening to the sound of the leaves rustling in the light breeze and the snap of feathers as an occasional bird launched itself silently into the sky far above her. It was spectacularly peaceful here now, although Alice thought that given the condition of the body she had just disposed of, there must have been a vicious battle on this site. She looked around the clearing for telltale signs of fighting.

A human passing by would most likely not notice the indication of violence, but Alice's new eyes quickly found the evidence that the confrontation was not localized to a typical bout of fisticuffs. Chunks of tree trunks had been ripped out of larger trees and several saplings had been ripped out by their roots. There were two very long trenches furrowed into the forest floor as if a broad back had been used like a plow. Alice could only imagine the force and strength of the impact that had knocked the vampire off his feet with the velocity to propel him that far. High above her head, large branches hung from their trees by a few fibrous tendons. She knew that the next storm with strong winds or a heavy snowfall would bring them crashing down.

What was she to do with herself now? Alice knew that she would eventually have to return to the house in which she had awoken. She would need to make plans and decide what to do with her future. Given the now-faded scent of the victorious combatant, there were other vampires in the world; but for now, she was alone. Would she always be so? _No!_ her brain cried out. _I will find someone to love who will love me even if I am- _

The vision that sprang before her eyes was so beautiful that Alice gasped. Eyes as red as her own gazed at her as raindrops dripped from the tips of a fine fringe of lashes. Thick golden hair damp from the rain curled against his chiseled jaw line. A broad grin stretched across the most glorious being Alice had ever seen or would ever want to see again. The vampire's arms were open to welcome an embrace and Alice saw her own form launching at him with an enthusiasm that knocked him off-balance but not over, as if he expected and was accustomed to her overzealous greeting. Her clothing in her vision was odd to her, fairly indecent by the standard of dress currently in fashion, so she knew that it would be several years before she would find this glorious male.

But she would find him. This man was her future.


End file.
